Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T08:48:09.030Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 10 - Kuhn on Scientific Discovery as Endogenous

from Part III - Kuhnian Themes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2021

K. Brad Wray
Affiliation:
Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
Get access

Summary

Popper and the logical empiricists focused on the logical status of the products of research and made scientific discovery and invention, the processes of achieving creative breakthroughs, exogenous to the logic of science. Creative insights were the result of happy but accidental psychological experiences, of minimal cognitive interest. Kuhn, in Structure, attempted to endogenize discovery, to provide an account of the practice of scientific problem-solving but without employing traditional logic of discovery or justification. Key to his account of normal science was the role of exemplars (standardized problem solutions) and acquired resemblance relations (analogies, metaphors, similes). Kuhn’s account was insightful in suggesting that puzzle solving amounts to rhetoric-based problem reduction to existing exemplars, largely independent of theory reduction. While Kuhn helped to resurrect philosophical interest in the process of research, he was only partially successful. By taming discovery in normal science, he exacerbated his problem of understanding how revolutionary breaks are conceived. And he left us with several questions about exemplars. What, exactly, are exemplars and where do they come from? Can exemplars carry across revolutionary breaks? I employ examples from early quantum theory.

Type
Chapter
Information
Interpreting Kuhn
Critical Essays
, pp. 185 - 201
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×