New Answers for Kuhniacs (New Answers #5): Intergalactic Largesse

[koganbot]

dubdobdee compiled a daunting inventory of models, similarity, metaphors, etc. in the Thomas Kuhn article "What Are Scientific Revolutions?" (see here for the article, pp 13 to 32), and I've gone through and commented on quite a lot of it down in the comment thread to Kuhn 6 RESTARTED: Dick And Jane Examine Paradigms. I encourage you to look at what we've written, and add your own comments (there or here).

What I'm going to do midweek (I'm shooting for Tuesday or Wednesday) is to start posting what Kuhn has said paradigms are ("paradigm" in the sense of an "exemplar" or a "model"). One reason I urge you to think and comment before then is that what he's doing seems to cover more territory than he says it does, so I want you to have your own opinions about what he's doing before telling you his and mine.

Questions to hold in the back of your mind while reading:

(1) Kuhn believed he was taking care of something by using the concept of "paradigm," something that the concepts then current in philosophy of science and history of science mostly weren't able to handle. What did he think he was trying to take care of? (Again, I'm speaking here of "paradigm" in its narrow sense, as "exemplar" or "model," though obviously Kuhn was also trying to take care of something when he broadened the notion to mean a whole "disciplinary matrix.") What did he think was at stake?
(2) What do you think he was trying to take care of (which may or may match up with what he explicitly seems to be trying to take care of)?
(3) What, if anything, do you think is at stake for you in the notion of paradigm?

Other koganbot threads with new comments in the last five days or so:

Another Year In America February 12, 2009 ("expanding the archetypal blissed out R&B slow jam into a feast of intergalactic largesse")
Another Year In America February 5, 2009 ("death metal in his strangulations")
Die Tarper, or Tire Rims And Anthrax ("the war of public relations can be won by the insane folk")

Comments

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

have cleared mag deadline but still have 80 pages of catalogue to clear for tomorrow, a workshop in chichester to prep for on tue afternoon, and the rest of the catalogue for next mon (tho i don't get those pages till fri) -- so i may have free time on wed-thur (if i 'm just asleep)

[koganbot]

OK, I'll hold off until Wednesday, and given my inability to meet my own deadlines, Wednesday may well turn into Thursday.