Thomas Kuhn
1922-1996 · American · Philosophy of Science, History of Science
Normal science does not aim at novelties of fact or theory and, when successful, finds none.
Thomas Kuhn trained as a physicist at Harvard, but the moment that changed him came while preparing a lecture on Aristotle's physics. Reading it as failed Newtonian mechanics, he found it absurd — until he stopped judging the past by the present and suddenly saw a coherent system on its own terms. That gestalt switch became the seed of the most disruptive book in the philosophy of science.
Topics Thomas Kuhn addresses
- paradigm
- normal science
- scientific revolutions
- paradigm shift
- anomaly
- crisis
- incommensurability
- exemplars
- disciplinary matrix
- puzzle-solving
- theory-ladenness of observation
- world change
- gestalt switch
- theory choice
- scientific progress
- the essential tension
- meaning variance
- lexical taxonomy
- scientific community
- the Copernican revolution
- normal and revolutionary science
- relativism
- constructivism
- cumulative versus non-cumulative progress
Questions to put to Thomas Kuhn
Paradigms and Normal Science
- What do you mean by a paradigm?
- How do exemplars train scientists to see similarity?
- Why is normal science more like puzzle-solving than discovery?
- What's the essential tension you see in scientific research?
- How does the disciplinary matrix hold a community together?
Crisis and Revolutionary Science
- What turns an anomaly into a crisis?
- How does a scientific revolution actually happen?
- Why do you compare paradigm shifts to gestalt switches?
- Can scientists working in different paradigms really understand each other?
- What made the Copernican revolution revolutionary?
Incommensurability and Meaning Change
- What does it mean for two theories to be incommensurable?
- How can Newtonian mass and Einsteinian mass be different concepts?
- Does incommensurability mean we can't compare competing theories?
- What's the no-overlap principle in your taxonomic account?
- How did you refine the incommensurability thesis in your later work?
Observation, Perception, and World Change
- Why do you say observation is theory-laden?
- In what sense do scientists in different paradigms work in different worlds?
- How literally do you mean that the world changes in a revolution?
- Can two scientists looking at the same thing see different things?
- What's the difference between seeing and interpreting?
Theory Choice and Scientific Values
- Is there a rational method for choosing between competing theories?
- What are the five values you think scientists actually use?
- Why do accuracy and simplicity sometimes conflict?
- How can theory choice be rational without being algorithmic?
- What role does individual judgment play in scientific decisions?
Progress, Truth, and the Limits of Realism
- Does science progress toward truth or just away from past errors?
- Why can't we make sense of reality as philosophers usually talk about it?
- How do you respond to the charge that your view makes science irrational?
- Did you really license the idea that scientific facts are socially constructed?
- What's wrong with saying theory choice is down to politics and power?
Converse with Thomas Kuhn on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in Thomas Kuhn's own writing, cited to the page.