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Thomas Kuhn and the chemical revolution

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Abstract

The paper discusses how well Kuhn’s general theory of scientific revolutions fits the particular case of the chemical revolution. To do so, I first present condensed sketches of both Kuhn’s theory and the chemical revolution. I then discuss the beginning of the chemical revolution and compare it to Kuhn’s specific claims about the roles of anomalies, crisis and extraordinary science in scientific development. I proceed by comparing some features of the chemical revolution as a whole to Kuhn’s general account. The result will be that Kuhn’s general description of scientific revolutions fits the chemical revolution extraordinarily well. However, this result should not be taken as an empirical confirmation of Kuhn’s theory, but rather as an indication that the chemical revolution is a constitutive part of it.

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Notes

  1. See mainly Kuhn SSR, pp. 78, 130–135, 139; 1961, pp. 195–196; 1970, p. 200; 1974, p. 304 fn. 14; 1979, p. 416.

  2. Kuhn (1951, 1952a, b, c).

  3. The Phlogiston theory was last treated in Kuhn’s writings in Kuhn (1983, pp. 674–678).

  4. Cohen (1985, p. 236).

  5. Kuhn SSR, p. 102.

  6. Perrin (1990, pp. 275–276); see also the contributions in Donovan (1988).

  7. For these modifications, see e.g. Ströker (1982, pp. 115–217); see also Kuhn SSR, pp. 70–72.

  8. See e.g. Ströker (1982, p. 167).

  9. Kuhn (1983, p. 675).

  10. See e.g. Ströker (1982, pp. 111–112).

  11. Ströker (1982, pp. 106–107).

  12. Ströker (1982, pp. 166–170, 191–194).

  13. Perrin (1990, p. 266).

  14. Compare Ströker (1982, pp. 115–217).

  15. Ströker (1982, pp. 96, 240).

  16. Cohen (1985, pp. 235–236).

  17. Ströker (1982, pp. 239–243).

  18. Kuhn SSR, p. 55.

  19. See Hoyningen-Huene (1993, Sects. 7.1–7.3).

  20. Primas and Müller-Herold (1990, pp. 263–271).

  21. Kuhn (1961, pp. 206–207, 210); SSR, pp. 69–72.

  22. Ströker (1982, p. 62).

  23. Kuhn (1961, p. 210); Ströker (1982, p. 114).

  24. Ströker (1982, pp. 68–69, 104).

  25. Ströker (1982, p. 83).

  26. Ströker (1982, pp. 71 fn. 7; 149, 166).

  27. Brock (1993, p. 78); Ströker (1982, pp. 155, 165–166, 183, 185–186).

  28. Ströker (1982, pp. 222, 234).

  29. Brock (1993, p. 101); Kuhn (1961, p. 210).

  30. Ströker (1982, p. 120).

  31. Ströker (1982, pp. 127–128).

  32. However, it should be noted that for Stahl this anomaly was already on its way to becoming a significant anomaly. As phlogiston’s particles were assumed to be very light, as early as 1718 it was doubtful to Stahl whether phlogiston, by itself, could account for any weight changes, whether positive of negative, in the given class of chemical reactions (Ströker 1982, pp. 105, 114).

  33. Kuhn (1961, p. 210); Ströker (1982, p. 223).

  34. Ströker (1982, p. 104).

  35. Ströker (1982, p. 221).

  36. Ströker (1982, pp. 60–61).

  37. For Stahl, see Ströker (1982, pp. 100–101, 103–104); for one of the later versions, namely Juncker’s, see Ströker (1982, p. 127).

  38. Ströker (1982, pp. 223–226).

  39. Brock (1993, pp. 101–103).

  40. Kuhn SSR, pp. 56, 57.

  41. Brock (1993, p. 105); see also Ströker (1982, pp. 226–228).

  42. Ströker (1982, p. 177).

  43. For Kuhn’s view of research in the crisis state, see Hoyningen-Huene (1993, Sect. 7.3.b).

  44. Ströker (1982, pp. 177, 235–238).

  45. Ströker (1982, pp. 177–178, 247–249).

  46. Ströker (1982, pp. 258–262).

  47. Kuhn SSR, p. 72.

  48. Cohen (1985, p. 230); see also Perrin (1990, p. 273).

  49. Ströker (1982, pp. 246–252).

  50. Ströker (1982, pp. 251–252).

  51. On expected discoveries, see Hoyningen-Huene (1993, Sect. 5.2.c), on unexpected discoveries see ibid., Sect. 7.2.

  52. Kuhn SSR, p. 58.

  53. Kuhn SSR, p. 53.

  54. Kuhn SSR, pp. 54–55; Kuhn (1962b, pp. 167–171, 176); Ströker (1982, pp. 196–211).

  55. Compare Hoyningen-Huene (1993, Sect. 7.4.a).

  56. Ströker (1982, pp. 237–238).

  57. Hoyningen-Huene (1993, pp. 260–261).

  58. Kuhn (1961, p. 212 with fn. 50); SSR, p. 157; 1976, p. 192 with fn. 12. For another loss of explanatory power of the oxygen theory, see Kuhn SSR, p. 157.

  59. Kuhn SSR, p. 107; see also Kuhn (1977, pp. 335–336).

  60. Kuhn SSR, p. 107, similarly on p. 148; Kuhn (1977, p. 336).

  61. Kuhn SSR, p. 108.

  62. For details, see Hoyningen-Huene (1993, Sects. 7.4 and 7.5).

  63. Kuhn (1977, p. 323).

  64. Kuhn SSR, p. 159; Ströker (1982, p. 294).

  65. Ströker (1982, pp. 236–237), 250. Perrin dates Lavoisier’s circularity reproach against Stahl’s theory as the year 1785: Perrin (1990, p. 273).

  66. See Hoyningen-Huene (1993, pp. 159–160, 199, 217–218), and references therein.

  67. Gough (1988, pp. 16–17).

  68. Kuhn (1970, pp. 200–201); Ströker (1982, p. 273).

  69. Brock (1993, pp. 109–110); Ströker (1982, p. 245).

  70. Brock (1993, p. 119).

  71. Kuhn SSR, p. 55.

  72. Cohen (1985, pp. 232–233); Ströker (1982, pp. 272–276); Perrin (1990, pp. 273–274).

  73. See Hesse (1983, p. 707) and Hoyningen-Huene (1993, p. 216).

  74. I have dealt with this tricky topic at length in Hoyningen-Huene (1993), Part II: Scientific Knowledge and Its Object, pp. 29–162.

  75. Kuhn SSR, p. 118.

  76. See Putnam (1978, p. 25).

  77. On this issue, compare Hoyningen-Huene (1993, Sect. 1.2).

  78. See Hoyningen-Huene (1993, pp. 3–4, fn. 3).

  79. See Hoyningen-Huene (1993, especially Sects. 3.6 and 4.4).

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Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Martin Carrier for the correction of an inaccuracy in an earlier version of this paper, and Eric Oberheim and Peter Barker for substantial linguistic improvements.

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Correspondence to Paul Hoyningen-Huene.

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An earlier version of this article appeared as Hoyningen-Huene, Paul (1998): “Kuhn and the Chemical Revolution”. In Prospettive della logica e della filosofia della scienza. Atti del Convegno Triennale della Società Italiana di Logica e Filosofia delle Scienze, Roma, 3–5 gennaio 1996, edited by V. M. Abrusci, C. Cellucci, R. Cordeschi and V. Fano. Pisa: Edizioni ETS, pp. 483–498.

Republished with kind permission of Edizioni ETS.

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Hoyningen-Huene, P. Thomas Kuhn and the chemical revolution. Found Chem 10, 101–115 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10698-008-9044-7

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