Environmental onto-epistemology: vestiges and displacements in the field of fundamentals of environmental education

Abstract This study intends to present to the field of fundamentals of environmental education some principles that support the need for recognition of ontological epistemologies that can account for the readings in environmental studies in our time. Thus, this paper tries to demonstrate how the Western rationality, seeking to establish itself, divided the being in the core of its epistemologies through its dualisms; to present, posteriorly, the current vestiges of a shift from scientific positivism to a way to regard science recognizing the ontological dimension of the being, considering for it to recognize Heidegger’s historical temporality and Gadamer’s language. The study submitted aspires to be thestart to think possibilities of an onto-epistemological debate in environmental education.