In the postscript of the second edition of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn explicates his conception of paradigms by introducing the notion disciplinary matrix that consists of the four essential components symbolic generalizations, models, values and exemplars. In this paper, we focus on the model component of a disciplinary matrix that Kuhn (1996Kuhn ( [1962: 184) characterises as the metaphysical part of paradigms and the function of which for actual scientific praxis, however, is underdetermined in philosophical paradigm research. By means of a case study in linguistics, we will analyse the interplay of the model component of a paradigm (hereafter: paradigm-model) and empirical research that is carried out by a particular research program based on the corresponding paradigm-model. To this end, we will analyse the linguistic Pro Drop-Parameter Research Program in the time period from 1971 to 1987 by means of the Structuralist view of theories. The research program is based on the parameter paradigm-model of the superordinate paradigm of Generative Grammar that, in turn, is affected by the evolution of the research program. In our analysis, the evolution of the Pro Drop-Parameter Research Program will turn out to be theoretically regressive. By means of three real scientific examples we will demonstrate how the theoretical regression of the research program retroacts on the metaphysical parameter paradigm-model of Generative Grammar.
According to a seminal paper by Barsalou (Frames, fields, and contrasts, 1992), frames are attribute-value-matrices for representing exemplars or concepts. Frames have been used as a tool for reconstructing scientific concepts as well as conceptual change within scientific revolutions (Andersen and Nersessian, in Philos Andersen et al., in The cognitive structure of scientific revolutions, 2006; Votsis and Schurz, in Stud Hist Philos Sci 43:105-114, 2012, in Concept types and frames. Application in language, cognition, and science, 2014). In the frame-based representations of scientific concepts developed so far the semantic content of concepts is (partially) determined by a set of attribute-specific values. This way of representing semantic content works best for prototype concepts and defined concepts of a conceptual taxonomy satisfying the no-overlap principle. In addition to the semantic content of prototype concepts and defined concepts, frames can also contain empirical knowledge that is represented as constraints between the values of the frame. Beside prototype concepts and defined concepts, theoretical concepts that are multiply operationalized play an important role in science. However, so far no frame-based representation of theoretical concepts has been proposed. In this paper, it will be shown that theoretical concepts can be represented by frames and that frame-based representations of prototype concepts and defined concepts have another structure than frame-based representations of theoretical concepts. In order to explicate this difference, we will develop a frame-based method for representing all three kinds of concepts by means of mathematical graph-theory. One important consequence will be that the constraints of a frame representing a B Stephan Kornmesser
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