ademar@lac.usp.br

I will argue that a subject can hold scientific and technical controversies with him or herself, although of a different kind or attenuated form. In order to support this claim, I first show that the current practice of science pressuposes or makes necessary that the subject researcher anticipate controversies, a task the subject can realize in its lowest degree by a sort of internal dialogue with imagined representatives of peers. Then, the characteristics and roles of these weak controversies held by the subject with him or herself are studied, in comparison with those of strong controversies, or controversies tout-court, as those analyzed by M. Dascal. It is also argued that in the process of learning how to take part in controversies, the subject’s self-awareness as a researcher increases, by means of his or her participation in the spaces of both types of controversies, connected as they are by a two-way road. Specific examples are analyzed.