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Social Science (1/2)
Not too many people know that Kuhn make contributions to the scope of social sciences since the field is the study of how humans interact within a society which consequentially is a product of philosophy itself.“The social sciences took up Kuhn with enthusiasm. There are primarily two reasons for this. First, Kuhn’s picture of science appeared to permit a more liberal conception of what science is than hitherto, one that could be taken to include disciplines such as sociology and psychoanalysis. -
The Structure of Scientific Revolution (1/2)
Thomas Kuhn was responsible for the spark of a new of thinking in the field of philosophy of science. In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn states that “the development of a science is not uniform but has alternating ‘normal’ and ‘revolutionary’ (or extraordinary) phases. The revolutionary phases are not merely periods of accelerated progress but differ qualitatively from normal science. -
The Structure of Scientific Revolution (2/2)
Normal science does resemble the standard cumulative picture of scientific progress, on the surface at least. Kuhn describes normal science as ‘puzzle-solving” (Bird). -
Paradigm Shifts
One other major contribution Kuhn made to the philosophy of science is his theory on paradigm shifts/change and the fact that breakthroughs can splinter off into a new theory that is fundamental rather than adding to a previous theory. “Paradigm shifts occur as either discoveries (e.g., novelties of fact) or inventions (e.g., novelties of theory), with the two cases being difficult to separate as all facts are theory‐laden” (Anand). -
Incommensurability (1/2)
Kuhn once said that there is no common measure in the field of philosophy of science, which correlates to: no shared reasons, encounters, connotations, and world. “The incommensurability thesis is a philosophical thesis about scientific knowledge. It was introduced by Kuhn and Feyerabend, who used the term 'incommensurability' metaphorically. -
Incommensurability (2/2)
Depending on which version of the thesis one considers, incommensurability may be defined as the lack of a common measure for the objective comparison of two competing paradigms, or theories, or scientific traditions” (Politi). -
Social Science (2/2)
Secondly, Kuhn’s rejection of rules as determining scientific outcomes appeared to permit appeal to other factors, external to science, in explaining why a scientific revolution took the course that it did” (Bird).