Corsi, Pietro, The Politics of Theory in the History of Science . In: Ardigó, Fabiano (Org.) Histórias de Uma Ciência Regional: Cientistas e suas instituições no Paraná (1940-1960). Ed. Contexto, São Paulo, 2011. Preface THE POLITICS OF THEORY IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE Pietro Corsi At first sight, there would make little sense for a professor from the Univer- sity of Oxford to write a foreword to a collection of essays by Brazilian colleagues, devoted to the assessment of scientific activities — broadly understood — carried on in the State of Parana during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Nor would it be a sufficient justification to reference the personal ties I have formed over the last three years with the organizer of this book, Fabiano Ardigó, a graduate student in the History of Science Programme at Oxford. True, I have read — out of sheer interest — earlier versions of almost all of the chapters contained in this col- lection, and discussed them at length with Fabiano. Yet, during the years in which Fabiano completed his M.Phil. — the substance of which constitutes Chapter 2 of this book– we also discussed how to approach classic methodological issues such