For centuries, inconsistencies were seen as a hindrance to good reasoning, and their role in the sciences was ignored. However, logicians as well as philosophers and historians have shown a growing interest in the matter. Central to this change were the advent of paraconsistent logics, the shift in attention from finished theories to construction processes, and the recognition that most scientific theories were at some point either internally inconsistent or incompatible with other accepted findings. The interest gave rise to important questions.