Abstract Our research includes a discussion of certain culturally embedded aspects which have great relevance on the way language is conceptualized, taught and learned, along with some (un)desirable consequences envisioned from an educational and axiological point of view. The meaning of the notion “evolution” is at the core of this critical analysis, as we highlight some of the relevant consequences set into motion by the accepted scientific approach. Despite the postulation that scientific concepts maintain neutral value, it may be demonstrated that these are interpretations based on given assumptions, which generate a consequential assessment of the nature of reality. Our assumptions and perspective on the world narrow down the meaning of reality or that of certain concepts which experts have agreed to accept as valid. The study points to the materialist approach of traditional scientific discourse which often reduces higher-level realities to explainable hypotheses. However, scientific reductionism is currently challenged, as it has failed to provide an accurate and complete account of our human story. Holistic and transdisciplinary perspectives have now taken centre stage, as well as new post-Darwinist and post-Newtonian paradigms of thought. According to Karl Popper, the central problem in the philosophy of science is that of demarcation, of distinguishing between science and what he calls non-science. Popper argued that Darwinism is more a methaphysical research program than a scientific theory and natural selection cannot be tested because biological evolution is a unique historical process. He pointed out that there are evolutionary trends, but these do not prove the existence of evolutionary laws. A trend is existential not universal. Popper argued that evolution theory predicts accidental mutations and thus accidental changes.

Key words: Darwinism; eco-linguistics; cognitive linguistics; philosophy of science, Karl Popper; semantics.

social sciences

Presentation: poster