By K. Brad Wray
Kuhn's constitution of clinical Revolutions (1962) has been enduringly influential in philosophy of technology, demanding many universal presuppositions in regards to the nature of technology and the expansion of medical wisdom. in spite of the fact that, philosophers have misunderstood Kuhn's view, treating him as a relativist or social constructionist. during this publication, Brad Wray argues that Kuhn presents an invaluable framework for constructing an epistemology of technology that takes account of the confident position that social components play in medical inquiry. He examines the middle suggestions of constitution and explains the most features of either Kuhn's evolutionary epistemology and his social epistemology, pertaining to constitution to Kuhn's built view awarded in his later writings. The dialogue contains analyses of the Copernican revolution in astronomy and the plate tectonics revolution in geology. The publication can be valuable for students operating in technology stories, sociologists and historians of technological know-how in addition to philosophers of technology.
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Extra resources for Kuhn's Evolutionary Social Epistemology
Sample text
Similarly, revolutionary scientific changes alter the existing institutions and norms in ways that the currently widely accepted theory, norms, and standards prohibit. Not only do the scientists involved in a revolution not acknowledge the legitimacy of existing standards, the competing parties involved “acknowledge no supra-institutional framework for the adjudication of revolutionary difference” (Kuhn 1962a/1996, 93). Consequently, each party appeals to its own standards to justify their behavior.
Although astrology is irrelevant to contemporary astronomy, Westman insists that astrology was intimately linked with astronomy in the early modern period. Re-examining the revolutionary status of the Copernican revolutionary 37 persuasive case might be made for calling him the last great Ptolemaic astronomer” (1957, 181). Further, like Barker, Kuhn recognized that many of the contributions that we associate with the Copernican revolution, including “easy and accurate computations of planetary position, the abolition of epicycles and eccentrics, the dissolution of spheres … [and] the infinite expansion of the universe … are not to be found anywhere in Copernicus’ work” (135).
They have certain features that make them especially interesting to philosophers concerned with the epistemology of science. In particular, the choice between competing theories must be made without the aid of shared standards, something that is taken for granted during periods of normal science. Ch apter 2 The Copernican revolution revisited Are there any scientific revolutions? Such a question has been raised by some of Kuhn’s critics. Larry Laudan (1984), for example, argues that no changes in science are aptly described as revolutionary.