International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 12 (1):7 – 16 (1998)
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Abstract |
In a shift of position that has gone largely unnoticed by the great majority of commentators, Thomas Kuhn's version of the incommensurability thesis underwent a major transformation over the last decade and a half of his life. In his later work, Kuhn argued that incommensurability is a relation of translation failure between local subsets of interdefined theoretical terms, which encapsulate the taxonomic structure of a theory. Incommensurability arises because it is impossible to transfer the natural categories employed within one taxonomic structure into the categorial system of another such structure. Apparently on the basis of such taxonomic incommensurability, Kuhn asserted a number of antirealist theses about truth, reference and reality. In this paper, it will be argued, however, that, far from leading to antirealist consequences about the relationship between theory and reality, the taxonomic incommensurability thesis may be incorporated unproblematically within a reasonably robust scientific realist framework.
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DOI | 10.1080/02698599808573578 |
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References found in this work BETA
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.David Bohm - 1964 - Philosophical Quarterly 14 (57):377-379.
The Road Since Structure.Thomas S. Kuhn - 1991 - In A. Fine, M. Forbes & L. Wessels (eds.), PSA 1990: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association. University of Chicago Press. pp. 3-13.
What Are Scientific Revolutions?Thomas S. Kuhn - 1981 - Center for Cognitive Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
A Response to My Critics.Thomas S. Kuhn - 1970 - In Imre Lakatos & Alan Musgrave (eds.), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Cambridge University Press.
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Citations of this work BETA
Overlapping Ontologies and Indigenous Knowledge. From Integration to Ontological Self-Determination.David Ludwig - 2016 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 59:36-45.
Indigenous and Scientific Kinds.David Ludwig - 2017 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 68 (1).
Kuhn’s Wrong Turning.Alexander Bird - 2002 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 33 (3):443-463.
On the Historical Origins of the Contemporary Notion of Incommensurability: Paul Feyerabend's Assault on Conceptual Conservatism.Eric Oberheim - 2005 - Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 36 (2):363-90.
On the Historical Origins of the Contemporary Notion of Incommensurability: Paul Feyerabend’s Assault on Conceptual Conservativism.Eric Oberheim - 2005 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 36 (2):363-390.
View all 31 citations / Add more citations
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Kuhn's Changing Concept of Incommensurability.Howard Sankey - 1993 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 44 (4):759-774.
Implications of Incommensurability.Philip Kitcher - 1982 - PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1982:689 - 703.
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