Transcript 9-14Kuhn
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Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996)
reflection #1
What is Kuhn’s thesis in the
excerpts we read for today?
Explain the stages scientific
revolutions, according to
Kuhn.
the structure of scientific revolutions:
Pre-science
Normal science/
Result fails to
central paradigm conform to the
paradigm? Fault
of researcher.
New
paradigm
CRISIS!
More
anomalous
results?
so…science develops via
paradigm shifts…
….so what?
Why does
this matter?
progress is reconceived.
“Perhaps science does not
develop by the
accumulation of individual
discoveries and
inventions” (2).
science becomes as act of
many, rather than an act of
one.
Scientific discovery “is seldom
completed by a single [hu]man
and never overnight” (7).
science reflects values.
“the particular conclusions [a
scientist] does arrive at are
probably determined
by…prior experience…and by
his[/her] own individual
makeup” (4).
“the criteria of
choice…function not as
rules…but as values, which
influence it” (The Essential
Tension).
pluralism becomes possible.
“When scientists must choose
between competing theories,
two [individuals] fully
committed to the same list of
criteria for choice may
nevertheless reach different
conclusions”
(The Essential Tension).
story-telling matters!
“History, we too often say, is a
purely descriptive discipline.
The theses suggested above
are, however, often
interpretive and sometimes
normative” (8).