Reading :
1. O’Hear, Chapter 3 to page 41.
2. T. S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. If you can, read the whole book. If you need to conserve time and energy, read at least Chapters II, III, VI, VIII, IX, X, and XIII. (More vaguely: read what you need to read to answer the questions below.) If you find yourself too baffled to struggle on without help, you can read the accounts of Kuhn’s ideas in O’Hear (pp. 64-75) and Fay (pp. 72-82)
Our goal for this unit is simply to understand (without yet criticizing or applying) Kuhn’s enormously influential ideas. Recall that O’Hear began his book on the philosophy of science by suggesting that the prestige of science depends on our belief that science is both objective and progressive. That is, scientific knowledge manages to be independent of the biases, prejudices, ideological commitments, and desires of the people who produce it. And science makes progress towards a more and more accurate understanding of the world. Kuhn develops an understanding of science that undermines these beliefs.
Writing assignment:
Answer all of the following questions
1. According to Kuhn the history of science can show us that paradigms play a crucial role in science. Based on a reading of Chapters II and III, what is a paradigm, and why does scientific inquiry flounder without one? (In other words, how does ‘pre-paradigmatic science’ differ from ‘normal science’?)
2. What point does Kuhn make using the ‘anomalous card’ experiment he describes on pp. 62-64? (Describe the experiment briefly and explain the significance Kuhn thinks it has for understanding human perception and science.)
3. Based on your reading of Chapter VIII, explain how Kuhn thinks scientists normally respond to observations that contradict their theories. How does this create a problem for Popper’s notion of ‘falsification’ (as described by O’Hear)?
4. Based on your reading of Chapters IX and X, explain how Kuhn sees the nature of scientific revolutions. According to a more traditional understanding of science, scientific revolutions lead to new interpretations of “observations that themselves are fixed once and for all by the nature of the environment and of the perceptual apparatus.” (Kuhn, p.120) Kuhn rejects this view, insisting that, in some sense, “after a revolution scientists are responding to a different world.” (p.111) What reasons does Kuhn give for thinking that the traditional view must be rejected? What is his view?
5. Based on your reading of Chapter XIII, explain Kuhn’s understanding of the nature of progress in science. In what sense does science make progress according to Kuhn? What conception of scientific progress does Kuhn think we can no longer hang on to? (How does an analogy with biological evolution help to explain this point?)