[Historical times, physical times, epidemiological times: probable contributions of Fernand Braudel and Ilya Prigogine to epidemiological thinking]
The text is an approach on time as a scientific category in epidemiology. Considering the aphorism time-place-person, time is pointed out as an element with little theoretical concern, despite its presence in main epidemiological concepts. While a topic connected to important changes in other disciplines, such as history, geography, biology and physics, time represents an interesting point of view to the interdisciplinary dialogue and its relevance for a critical knowledge in epidemiology. To argue about this idea, the historical and physical time constructions of Fernand Braudel and Ilya Prigogine are presented. These time theoretical constructions are compared with a probable epidemiological time. Finally, using the emerging infectious diseases as an example, some considerations are made about an apparent epistemological inadequacy of the epidemiological time to recognize the social and historical aspects involved in the complexity of the disease expressions in human populations.