Kuhn's evolutionary social epistemology /

Kuhn's evolutionary social epistemology /

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Wray, K. Brad, 1963-
Imprint:	Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Description:	xiii, 229 p. ; 24 cm.
Language:	English
Subject:	Kuhn, Thomas S. Kuhn, Thomas S. Science -- Philosophy. Knowledge, Theory of. Social epistemology. Knowledge, Theory of. Science -- Philosophy. Social epistemology.
Format:	E-Resource Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/8531890

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9781107012233 (hardback) 1107012236 (hardback)
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:	"Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) has been enduringly influential in philosophy of science, challenging many common presuppositions about the nature of science and the growth of scientific knowledge. However, philosophers have misunderstood Kuhn's view, treating him as a relativist or social constructionist. In this book, Brad Wray argues that Kuhn provides a useful framework for developing an epistemology of science that takes account of the constructive role that social factors play in scientific inquiry. He examines the core concepts of Structure and explains the main characteristics of both Kuhn's evolutionary epistemology and his social epistemology, relating Structure to Kuhn's developed view presented in his later writings. The discussion includes analyses of the Copernican revolution in astronomy and the plate tectonics revolution in geology. The book will be useful for scholars working in science studies, sociologists and historians of science as well as philosophers of science"--

Table of Contents:

List of figures and table
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Kuhn's insight
Part I. Revolutions, Paradigms, and Incommensurability
1. Scientific revolutions as lexical changes
2. The Copernican revolution revisited
3. Kuhn and the discovery of paradigms
4. The epistemic significance of incommensurability
Part II. Kuhn's Evolutionary Epistemology
5. Kuhn's historical perspective
6. Truth and the end of scientific inquiry
7. Scientific specialization
8. Taking stock of the evolutionary dimensions of Kuhn's epistemology
Part III. Kuhn's Social Epistemology
9. Kuhn's constructionism
10. What makes Kuhn's epistemology a social epistemology?
11. How does a new theory come to be accepted?
12. Where the road has taken us: a synthesis
Bibliograpy
Index