Contribuições da pesquisa científica para uma sociedade justa sob a ótica de John Rawls

Abstract

The public university is responsible for a considerable portion of the scientific research carried out in our country, whether forming researchers or directly providing the necessary structure for the production of knowledge and technology, an indispensable factor for the social development of a nation. In this context, universities need to establish a policy of financing research that allows the distribution of resources available to meet the demands of researchers, following consistent guidelines with the social purposes of the institutions. Through a bibliographical and documentary research, the present work had the objective of presenting a fair distribution model of public resources for the financing of scientific research at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), based on the principles of fairness presented by John Rawls in the book A Theory of Justice. For this, at first, the theory elaborated by John Rawls was analyzed. Then, an overview of the historical evolution of the contribution of science for the progress of society was traced, from the emergence of the technique in prehistory to the level of scientific and technological development that we experience today, with important participation of the knowledge produced and disseminated in the universities environment. Emphasis was given to the importance of public funding to researching. Furthermore, the contemporary challenges related to distribution of these resources into the public universities were identified. Lastly, the possible contributions of the theory of justice as fairness for the distribution of public resources destined to the fomentation of scientific research were analyzed, concluding with the suggestion of guiding principles for a policy of financing research at UFRN.