Incommensurability  

Oleh:

Andersen, Hanne ; Barker, Peter ; Chen, Xiang

Jenis: Article from Books - E-Book
Dalam koleksi: The Cognitive Structure of Scientific Revolutions, page 104-129.
Topik: Incommensurability; Development of Kuhn’s Concept of Incommensurability; Galileo’s Discoveries and The Conceptual Structure of Astronomy
Fulltext: Incommensurability.pdf (1.43MB)

Isi artikel

In this chapter we will use the methods introduced in previous chapters to clarify and extend Kuhn’s mature account of incommensurability. We will show that incommensurability between conceptual structures is created by changes that are neither total nor instantaneous. We will also draw out various conclusions that Kuhn suggested but did not elaborate, for example, that incommensurability varies in degree or importance and that the degree correlates with the position of a concept in a hierarchy or conceptual structure as depicted by the corresponding frame. Throughout the next two chapters our main historical focus will be the Copernican rev- olution, an episode that Kuhn never treated satisfactorily (Westman 1994; Barker 2001). On the basis of our new account, we will suggest that incommensurability may occur even within what Kuhn and earlier writers have regarded as a single paradigm and that this kind of conceptual dif?culty may in itself be a motive for conceptual revision. As we will see in Chapter 6, one of the most important motives for Copernicus’ revision of Ptolemaic astronomy was a problem of just this type.

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