Re: Kuhn, was Re: new to list

From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Tue Aug 28 2001 - 22:24:55 MDT


On Tuesday, August 28, 2001 4:25 PM Chris Hibbert hibbert@netcom.com wrote:
>> Kuhn's theory was that all scientific theories are equally and
>> subjectively valid, and one only gains credence over another due to
>> class conflict between established scientists and the younger
>> generations of scientists.
>
> Is that in "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions"? That's sure not
what
> I learned from that book! Where is this part of his mindset exposed?
>
> Have you read it, or are you repeating what other people have said? I'm
> not trying to cast aspersions with this question. I want to know whether
> you read the book differently than I did, or whether someone else did.
> It's easy to believe that a deconstructionist might have read it that way,
> for instance. If calm normal people also saw that, I'll have to re-read
it.

It's funny this would come up on the list. I'm now reading Paul Thagard's
_How Scientists Explain Disease_. (In 1996, reviewed Thagard's _Conceptual
Revolutions_ in _Full Context_. My review is now online at
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/Concept.html .) This book covers the
shift in the field of gastroenterology from believing most ulcers are caused
only by excessive stomach acid to the now widely accepted that view that
most are caused by Helicobacter pylori infections.

I think Kuhn often in his _The Structure of Scientific Revolutions_
straddles the fence. Some have taken him to be a sort of radical
subjectivist. One thing he did say which lends credence to this
interpretation of him -- and to the evolution of sociology of knowledge in
that direction -- is his view that different theories -- the paradigmatic
ones and not the garden variety ones:) -- are in some ways inconmensurable.
(It's been a long time since I've read the book, but the discussion in the
opening of chapter 12 is a good place to see this.)

I find Thagard's Theory of Explanatory Coherence to be an improvement on
Kuhn, especially since he shows how and why paradigmatic theories (e.g.,
modern geology's acceptance of plate tectonics) in a detailed manner.

Cheers!

Daniel Ust
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
    "Censorship and Art" is now online at:
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/Censor.html



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