Commensurability, Comparability, Communicability

Kuhn, Thomas S.

doi:10.1086/psaprocbienmeetp.1982.2.192452

Cited by 240 publications

(153 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Later on, however, Kuhn drops the concepts of paradigms, disciplinary matrices and exemplars to focus on the conceptual structure of scientific theories, which, in his view, respects a taxonomic hierarchy (Kuhn 1983(Kuhn , 1991(Kuhn , 2000a. As a result, Kuhn's whole model of science is redefined.…”

Section: Scientific Revolutions As Community-changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scientific revolutions, specialization and the discovery of the structure of DNA: toward a new picture of the development of the sciences

Politi

2017

Synthese

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In his late years, Thomas Kuhn became interested in the process of scientific specialization, which does not seem to possess the destructive element that is characteristic of scientific revolutions. It therefore makes sense to investigate whether and how Kuhn's insights about specialization are consistent with, and actually fit, his model of scientific progress through revolutions. In this paper, I argue that the transition toward a new specialty corresponds to a revolutionary change for the group of scientists involved in such a transition. I will clarify the role of the scientific community in revolutionary changes and characterize the incommensurability across specialties as possessing both semantic and methodological aspects. The discussion of the discovery of the structure of DNA will serve both as an illustration of my main argument and as reply to one criticism raised against Kuhn-namely, that his model cannot capture cases of revolutionary yet non-disruptive episodes of scientific progress. Revisiting Kuhn's ideas on specialization will shed new light on some often overlooked features of scientific change.

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Section: Scientific Revolutions As Community-changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scientific revolutions, specialization and the discovery of the structure of DNA: toward a new picture of the development of the sciences

Politi

2017

Synthese

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“…Contrary to the incomparability-interpretation of 'incommensurable'-which the mature Kuhn rejected (Chen 1997, Kuhn 1983, Hoyningen-Huene 1993)-, criteria could have been rationally compared.…”

Section: Frames In the History And Philosophy Of Sciencementioning

confidence: 98%

From Features via Frames to Spaces: Modeling Scientific Conceptual Change Without Incommensurability or Aprioricity

Zenker

2013

Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy

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The (dynamic) frame model, originating in artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology, has recently been applied to change-phenomena traditionally studied within history and philosophy of science. Its application purpose is to account for episodes of conceptual dynamics in the empirical sciences (allegedly) suggestive of incommensurability as evidenced by "ruptures" in the symbolic forms of historically successive empirical theories with similar classes of applications. This article reviews the frame model and traces its development from the feature list model. Drawing on extant literature, examples of framereconstructed taxonomic change are presented. This occurs for purposes of comparison with an alternative tool, conceptual spaces. The main claim is that conceptual spaces save the merits of the frame model and provide a powerful model for conceptual change in scientific knowledge, since distinctions arising in measurement theory are native to the model. It is suggested how incommensurability as incomparability of theoretical frameworks might be avoided (thus coming on par with a key-result of applying frames). Moreover, as non(inter-)translatability of world-views, it need not to be treated as a genuine problem of conceptual representation. The status of laws vis à vis their dimensional bases as well as diachronic similarity measures are (inconclusively) discussed.

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“…Bununla beraber benim durumumda, hermeneutiğin keşfi tarih yapmaktan daha önemli görünmekte. Bu durumun en dolayımsız ve kesin etkisi bilim anlayışım üzerinde olmuştur (Kuhn, 2000b(Kuhn, [1983: 36).…”

Section: Sonuçunclassified

Bilim Felsefesi Olarak Bilim Tarihi: Kuhn ve Koyré

Morkoç¹

2016

Muğla Sıtkı Koçman Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi

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Commensurability, Comparability, Communicability

Cited by 240 publications

References 8 publications

Scientific revolutions, specialization and the discovery of the structure of DNA: toward a new picture of the development of the sciences

Scientific revolutions, specialization and the discovery of the structure of DNA: toward a new picture of the development of the sciences

From Features via Frames to Spaces: Modeling Scientific Conceptual Change Without Incommensurability or Aprioricity

Bilim Felsefesi Olarak Bilim Tarihi: Kuhn ve Koyré

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