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The Copernican Revolution
One of Thomas Kuhn’s earliest works was The Copernican Revolution : Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought. He states that the story of the Copernican revolution had been told so many times, but never, to my knowledge, with quite the scope and object aimed at here (Kuhn, 1957). Kuhn explains that the Revolution at its core was a transformation of mathematical astronomy, and embraced the changes in cosmology, physics, philosophy and religion as well. -
The Copernican Revolution Cont.
Finally Kuhn ends his book by also explaining the reception of Copernicus’ work to the public and fellow philosophers and scientists. Kuhn also focuses on the contribution to the new conception of the universe. Kuhn compared this theory to others such as Darwin, Einstein, and Freud’s theories that have helped shape western civilization and therefore have shaped our fundamental thought processes. -
The Copernican Revolution Cont
His first purpose for writing this was to supply reading for the Harvard course as well as addressing the generic reader. The Copernican Revolution according to Kuhn was the cornerstone for the transition in Western man’s sense of values (Kuhn, 1957). Much of the book was about the impact of astrological observations and theories as well as the intellectual background that astronomy was practiced. -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Out of the 5 books and many articles published works The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was Kuhn’s most famous work. While this was a work in the theoretical history of science it was not philosophy, but the standpoints he takes were meant to engage deeply with philosophy (Bird, 2001). A common way of describing the importance of Kuhn’s book is to say that he shattered traditional myths about science, especially empiricist myths (Godfrey-Smith, 2003). -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Cont
He was the founder of the idea that there is a scientific cycle from normal science to crisis that then leads to scientific revolution. The other aspect of his book tries to find an underlying explanation to the patterns which later attributed to his theory of paradigms. Kuhn refers to the process of arriving at a scientific solution as “puzzle-solving”. He states that the completed puzzle itself seems of little worth, people enjoy puzzles for the pleasure and process of solving them. -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Cont
Kuhn also talks about the seemingly easy way to come to the wrong conclusion just putting pieces that may seem to fit well together but in the end they may not look like the picture located on the front of the box (Bird, 2001). Many of Kuhn’s views were criticized in this book for being too vague and lacking any distinguishing criteria for normal versus revolutionary science. -
Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge
In this timeline we already mentioned The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, it has been 10 years since this was published, while it was widely read it brought up many heated debates and controversy (Cole, 1971). The core concepts that were strongly criticized included normal science, paradigms, scientific revolutions, and scientific truth (Cole, 1971). There was a collection of works that was brought about after a science colloquium. -
Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge Cont
This philosophy of science meeting was held in 1965 and later these works and essays were collected into the book Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. This meeting that took place in 1965 focused directly on Kuhn’s work and included other philosophers like Popper, Watkins, Toulmin, Lakatos, Feyerabend. These other philosophers contributed essays to the book and then there were two essays written by Kuhn himself as an opening statement and a final statement to his critics. -
Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge Cont
Much of the book focuses on Kuhn’s idea of normal science and not many people including Popper agreed with this idea. Most of the questions brought up in this book are clearly empirical questions (Cole, 1971). According to the author of this paper states that this book calls for a new orientation towards the analysis of scientific development. -
The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change
Kuhn published The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change. He discussed a wide variety of things including cause in the development of physics, energy conservation, history of science, and the structure of scientific discovery. Perhaps the chapter that caused much attention was titled second thoughts on paradigms. Kuhn first introduced the theory of paradigms in his previous book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. -
The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change Cont
In this new chapter Kuhn states that he imperfectly understood paradigms when he wrote his book but he still believes that they deserve much attention. I believe that it takes a true scientist to understand that they may not have had all the facts correct and to continue to try and understand something rather that blindly sticking to your own ideology. This kind of idea is difficult to prove due to the lack of ability to physically test it. -
The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change Cont
This goes against theorists like Karl Popper who believe that true science is only meant to be refuted and not proven. Using something as simple as falsifiability it is easy to disprove many theories. Finally when referring to his original book Kuhn states that “This paper has, above all, been an effort to isolate, clarify, and drive home those essential points” (Kuhn, 1978).
https://youtu.be/zrX6qGjuW54
This is a video that discusses Popper and Kuhn including their conflicting views.