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The Last Writings of Thomas S. Kuhn: Incommensurability in Science
A must-read follow-up to The Structure of Scientific Revolutions , one of the most important books of the twentieth century.
This book contains the text of Thomas S. Kuhn’s unfinished book, The Plurality of An Evolutionary Theory of Scientific Development , which Kuhn himself described as a return to the central claims of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and the problems that it raised but did not resolve. The Plurality of Worlds is preceded by two related texts that Kuhn publicly delivered but never published in his paper “Scientific Knowledge as Historical Product” and his Shearman Memorial Lectures, “The Presence of Past Science.” An introduction by the editor describes the origins and structure of The Plurality of Worlds and sheds light on its central philosophical problems.
Kuhn’s aims in his last writings are bold. He sets out to develop an empirically grounded theory of meaning that would allow him to make sense of both the possibility of historical understanding and the inevitability of incommensurability between past and present science. In his view, incommensurability is fully compatible with a robust notion of the real world that science investigates, the rationality of scientific change, and the idea that scientific development is progressive.
This book contains the text of Thomas S. Kuhn’s unfinished book, The Plurality of An Evolutionary Theory of Scientific Development , which Kuhn himself described as a return to the central claims of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and the problems that it raised but did not resolve. The Plurality of Worlds is preceded by two related texts that Kuhn publicly delivered but never published in his paper “Scientific Knowledge as Historical Product” and his Shearman Memorial Lectures, “The Presence of Past Science.” An introduction by the editor describes the origins and structure of The Plurality of Worlds and sheds light on its central philosophical problems.
Kuhn’s aims in his last writings are bold. He sets out to develop an empirically grounded theory of meaning that would allow him to make sense of both the possibility of historical understanding and the inevitability of incommensurability between past and present science. In his view, incommensurability is fully compatible with a robust notion of the real world that science investigates, the rationality of scientific change, and the idea that scientific development is progressive.
- GenresScience
312 pages, Paperback
Published May 8, 2024
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166 people want to read
About the author
Thomas S. Kuhn
38 books676 followersAmerican historian and philosopher of science, a leading contributor to the change of focus in the philosophy and sociology of science in the 1960s. Thomas Samuel Kuhn was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He received a doctorate in theoretical physics from Harvard University in 1949. But he later shifted his interest to the history and philosophy of science, which he taught at Harvard, the University of California at Berkeley, Princeton University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
In 1962, Kuhn published The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which depicted the development of the basic natural sciences in an innovative way. According to Kuhn, the sciences do not uniformly progress strictly by scientific method. Rather, there are two fundamentally different phases of scientific development in the sciences. In the first phase, scientists work within a paradigm (set of accepted beliefs). When the foundation of the paradigm weakens and new theories and scientific methods begin to replace it, the next phase of scientific discovery takes place. Kuhn believes that scientific progress—that is, progress from one paradigm to another—has no logical reasoning. Kuhn's theory has triggered widespread, controversial discussion across many scientific disciplines.
In 1962, Kuhn published The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which depicted the development of the basic natural sciences in an innovative way. According to Kuhn, the sciences do not uniformly progress strictly by scientific method. Rather, there are two fundamentally different phases of scientific development in the sciences. In the first phase, scientists work within a paradigm (set of accepted beliefs). When the foundation of the paradigm weakens and new theories and scientific methods begin to replace it, the next phase of scientific discovery takes place. Kuhn believes that scientific progress—that is, progress from one paradigm to another—has no logical reasoning. Kuhn's theory has triggered widespread, controversial discussion across many scientific disciplines.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 24, 2023
Natural languages develop structured lexicons. Perception of an object is inevitably a perception of it as an object of a particular kind. Every lexicon makes certain questions possible. To master a language is to see the world through the lens of its taxonomy. To ask novel questions, the lexicon must be restructured (618).
Incommensurability means that there is no common lexicon, no set of terms with which all components of two theories can be fully and precisely stated. Untranslatable might be a better term. Truth-preserving translation cannot always be done.
Bilinguals have a cognitive advantage because it is easier for them to realize that the natural world does not impose any particular lexical structure on humans. However, bilinguals need to navigate a much more complex social world. Bilingualism is a reliable bridge across incommensurability.
Science is seen as a timeless body of knowledge, but concern has shifted to the dynamic process by which that knowledge is generated and changed. It is incoherent to think of science as trying to discover objective truths. To date no one has shown how to display anything like an asymptote toward which science has been moving closer.
The book contains some brilliant insights. However, it is doubtful that Kuhn would have ever permitted “Plurality of Worlds” to be published in such an uncooked form.
Incommensurability means that there is no common lexicon, no set of terms with which all components of two theories can be fully and precisely stated. Untranslatable might be a better term. Truth-preserving translation cannot always be done.
Bilinguals have a cognitive advantage because it is easier for them to realize that the natural world does not impose any particular lexical structure on humans. However, bilinguals need to navigate a much more complex social world. Bilingualism is a reliable bridge across incommensurability.
Science is seen as a timeless body of knowledge, but concern has shifted to the dynamic process by which that knowledge is generated and changed. It is incoherent to think of science as trying to discover objective truths. To date no one has shown how to display anything like an asymptote toward which science has been moving closer.
The book contains some brilliant insights. However, it is doubtful that Kuhn would have ever permitted “Plurality of Worlds” to be published in such an uncooked form.
Displaying 1 of 1 review