Estruturas, Modelos e os Fundamentos da Abordagem Semântica

In this paper, gathering several topics present in the work of Newton da Costa, we propose a rigorous foundation for a possible formulation of scienti?c theories according to the semantic approach. Following da Costa, as a ?rst step we develop a general theory of structures; inside this theory we show how we can characterize formal languages as particular kinds of structures, more speci?cally, as free algebras. Next we discuss how we can link a language to a structure, with which we can formulate the axioms that are intended to capture the theory of the structure. Finally, we show how we can, employing the framework developed, formulate da Costa and Chaqui�s formalization of the so-called Suppes� Predicate, used to characterize scienti?c theories in a rigorous wa