Re: Kuhn, was Re: new to list

From: hibbert@netcom.com
Date: Tue Aug 28 2001 - 17:25:24 MDT


mlorrey@datamann.com said:
> Kuhn's theory was that all scientific theories are equally and
> subjectively valid, and one only gains credence over another due to
> class conflict between established scientists and the younger
> generations of scientists.

Is that in "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions"? That's sure not what
I learned from that book! Where is this part of his mindset exposed?

Have you read it, or are you repeating what other people have said? I'm
not trying to cast aspersions with this question. I want to know whether
you read the book differently than I did, or whether someone else did.
It's easy to believe that a deconstructionist might have read it that way,
for instance. If calm normal people also saw that, I'll have to re-read it.

Chris

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Date:    Tue, 28 Aug 2001 18:53:50 -0400
To:      extropians@extropy.org
From:    Mike Lorrey <mlorrey@datamann.com>
Reply-to: extropians@extropy.org
Subject: Re: Kuhn, was Re: new to list
hibbert@netcom.com wrote:
> 
> mlorrey@datamann.com said:
> > If Newton had called it 'electromagnetic attraction', he would have
> > been wrong, and somebody else would have come up with the correct
> > theory of gravity. You seem to be suffering from a very Kuhnian
> > delusion that physical laws are created by people.
> 
> I don't understand the attack on Kuhn.  What is it in Kuhn (presumably "The
> Structure of Scientific Revolutions") that you connect to a "delusion that
> physical laws are created by people"?  My reading of Kuhn was that it takes
> time for people (even scientists) to accept a fundamental change in our
> understanding of how reality works.  I didn't think he had said that the
> world hadn't changed until the consensus had settled on the new view.
Kuhn's theory was that all scientific theories are equally and
subjectively valid, and one only gains credence over another due to
class conflict between established scientists and the younger
generations of scientists.


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