Book excerpt: This symposium is the first scientific event organized by the “Seminar for Epistemology” under the auspices of the University of Trieste. The aim of the symposium was to collect and open to discussion the contributions of a number of distinguished scientists from cognitive sciences and experimental nature sciences and to bring together specialists of various backgrounds.The very authoritative contributions presented at the Conference represent relevant, even if not exhaustive, specimens of the role of new conceptual tools in science.