A contribution to the epistemological reflection regarding information science

An epistemological reflection regarding information science (IS), aiming to better understand its development as a science, in order to promote the area identity construction as well as the recognition of essential concepts to accurately specify the "being" and "making" of IS. Following such perspective, at first, a study on concepts of terms such as epistemology and science was carried out. The genesis and development of the area was revisited as well as some concepts generated throughout its development were identified. The epistemological reflection, itself, initially considered a positivist approach to science, because, according to some authors, this is the starting point of IS to build up its theoretical and methodological groundings. The shortcomings of positivist models showed, however, that the research problems of IS must be thought in the inherent complexity of the broader field that it is part of - the social sciences. Thus, Edgard Morin's complex thought was explored aiming to find alternate ways to better understand the field. Complex thought contributes to strengthen IS field research, because this approach proposes the "connection and the reconnection" of things that make the whole picture, based on the very term complex, which means "something which is inseparable". Therefore, a theoretical reflection on IS, based on the concept of complexity, according to Morin's proposition, strengthens the necessary interdisciplinary dialogue in the contemporaneous science.