1. How To Think About Weird Things, Chapter 6 to page 190 (in the 5th edition -- if you have the sixth edition, read to page 181). (The rest of the chapter consists of two extended examples of how to apply the scientific method – to creationism and to parapsychology. Read them if you are interested.)
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 Weird Things (5th ed.: pp. 321-322; 6th ed.: pp.307-309) and/or check out some of the websites indexed below.
Our goal for right now is simply to understand (without yet criticizing or applying) Kuhn’s enormously influential ideas. 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. (This certainly seems to be the view of science that one gets from How To Think About Weird Things.) Kuhn develops an understanding of science that undermines these beliefs.
Writing assignment:
Answer all of the following questions
1. Write brief answers to the first four study questions for Chapter 6 of Weird Things (5th ed.: p. 221; 6th ed. p. 212).
2. 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 of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, what is a paradigm, and why does scientific inquiry flounder without one? (In other words, how does ‘pre-paradigmatic science’ differ from ‘normal science’?)
3. 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.)
4. 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' (described on pages 181-182 of the 5th ed. of Weird Things -- pp.173-174 in the 6th ed.)?
5. 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?
6. 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?)
Some links to help understanding Kuhn’s book:
A synopsis by Professor
Frank Pajares of Emory University
A detailed outline by
Professor Pajares
Some links to help with Kuhn’s references to the history
of science:
Kuhn assumes that his readers are familiar with the history
of science – that they will recognize the names of figures like Galileo,
Copernicus,
Steven Dutch U. of Wisconsin
http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/WestTech/suncentr.htm
Robert Hatch –
And here is Professor Hatch’s “brief” outline of the history of science:
http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/rhatch/pages/03-Sci-Rev/SCI-REV-Teaching/his-sci-outline/index.html
Michael Fowler –
http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu/lectures/lecturelist.html
Fowler’s physics applets are cool, if not always relevant to our study
http://www.phys.virginia.edu/classes/109N/more_stuff/Applets/home.html
There is a
http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/
A good place to start is:
http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/theories/copernican_system.html
A brief overview of the history of chemistry by Paul Charlesworth of Michigan Tech (includes other aspects of science as well):
http://chemistry.mtu.edu/~pcharles/SCIHISTORY/HomePage.html
Electricity, Leyden
Jars, Franklin, etc.:
Tired of everything being online? You could visit our local museum of electricity, the Bakken:
Michael Fowler,
http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu/more_stuff/E&M_Hist.html