Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • Chapter 5 - Mop-Up Work

  • from Part II - Three Core Concepts
  • Edited by K. Brad Wray, Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
  • Book:
    Interpreting Kuhn
    Published online:
    25 June 2021
    Print publication:
    08 July 2021, pp 85-104

  • Summary

    Thomas Kuhn conceived of himself, in the project most notably realized in the Structure of Scientific Revolutions, as presenting and supporting a novel image of science grounded in both its history and practice. Central to Kuhn’s new image of science is the idea that there are two distinct modes of scientific inquiry, its normal mode and its extraordinary mode. These modes show up along several dimensions of Kuhn’s image, including, but not limited to, the historical development of science, the cognitive strategies appropriate for its success, its social organization, and in the ‘location’ and nature of its content. This chapter attempts to capture and convey Kuhn’s notion of normal science by analyzing the three metaphors that he uses to introduce and explain the significance of the normal mode in his novel image of science.I will then introduce a metaphor of my own for understanding Kuhn’s importance, particularly by way of the notion of normal science, for contemporary work in the philosophy of science.