Lecture 6 Flashcards
What are 4 key concepts by Thomas Kuhn?
- Theory-ladenness observation
- Paradigm
- Scientific revolution
- Incommensurability (semantic, observational, methodological)
What is theory-ladenness?
- Idea that ‘pure observation’ does not exist
- All observations are contaminated with concepts and background theory
- We cannot look independently of conceptual frames and theoretical assumptions
Example: you see a duck. You only know it is a duck because you have a conceptual assumption of that duck. Observation is not only perceptual but also conceptual.
What is the implication of theory-ladenness?
Theory test is trickier than we assumed. Observations are contaminated by the theory under test. Danger of circularity.
What was the image of science before Kuhn?
Structure of science:
- Theoretical terms have clear and stable definitions
- Empirical data give univocal and objective verdicts about the adequacy of theories.
History of science:
- Growth of science is continuous and cumulative
- All scientists in history share the same standards of rationality
What is the image of science after Kuhn?
Structure of science:
- Definitions of theoretical terms change from one theory to another
- Observations are partly shaped by theories: empirical tests are not independent of theory
History of science:
- Development of science is discontinuous and non-cumulative: findings of one period do not hold in another
- Standards of rationality change in time
What is a paradigm, according to Kuhn?
- A conceptual framework that shapes scientists’ thought and work
- A scientist has a certain viewpoint from which they see things
What do paradigms consist of?
- Assumptions about the world under study
- Exemplars for problem solving
- Style for theorizing
What does a paradigm bring?
- Clear standards of progress
- Professional stability and career structure
- Coordination and concentration of effort
But: it imposes strict bounds on creativity
How does a paradigm end?
A paradigm ends when scientists encounter radically new data that cannot be explained within this paradigm. This will lead to “successive stages”.
In the successive stages, scientists…
- First dismiss the new data as anomaly
- Then accept the need to explain the data
- Finally criticise the established paradigm for its instability to account for the data
- This leads to a scientific revolution; one paradigm comes to an end, and out of the chaos a new paradigm comes forward
What is a scientific revolution?
- Result of a paradigm switch
- Scientific community has people with more conservative view on the matter, and people with more progressive view (revolutionary crisis)
- The outcome of the scientific revolution is the new paradigm
What is incommensurability?
- Idea that successive paradigms are incommensurable: you cannot measure two paradigms
- Lack of common measure
- Started in geometry
Incommensurability results in scientists talking past each other. This does not work because the comparison of theories is muddled by confusion about terms, contexts and consequences.
What are three forms of incommensurability?
- Semantic
- Observational
- Methodological
What is the problem of semantic?
- Scientific terms gain their meaning from a paradigm, and therefore this meaning does not work in another paradigm
Example: Mass in Newtons work refers to something else than mass in Einsteins work
What is the problem of observational?
- Our paradigm determines what we see (variant of theory-ladenness)
- Therefore a paradigm also determines what we do not see (duck rabbit example)
What is the problem of methodological?
- Change of style of reasoning
- Both the criteria of theory choice and the standards of scientific progress are influenced by paradigms. Because the paradigm decides if there is scientific progress or not
