Kuhn 5: First General C&Q Thread
Jan. 27th, 2009 08:35 amOK, start talking. This is what I'm calling the First General Comments And Questions (C&Q) Thread. The article under consideration is Thomas Kuhn's "What Are Scientific Revolutions?" which you can find your way to here, pp 13 to 32. I'm asking six questions but you can ask your own as well, and you don't have to answer mine 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 separately in that order (though you can if you want). You should have a good idea how to answer the first three, however. Questions 4 through 6 are generated by the essay (at least in my mind), but they're not specifically asked and definitely not answered in it.
( 1. What's the difference between cumulative and noncumulative change? )
( 2. What's a paradigm and what's a paradigm shift? )
( 3. What is incommensurability? )
( 4. Is Kuhn's conception of normal science a good one? )
( 5. Do any of the nonsciences have periods equivalent to a science's normal periods? )
( 6. How does one choose between incommensurable paradigms? )