Editor: Andoni Ibarra                                     Más información / Texto completo

Coedición:
Euskal Herriko Unibertsitateko Argitalpen Zerbitzua / Servicio Editorial de la Universidad del País Vasco
Centro de Análisis, Lógica e Informática Jurídica (CALIJ)

Volume 27/3, Number 75 (2012)                       ISSN 0495-4548 / ISSNe: 2171-679X

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S . U . M . M . A . R . Y

Monographic Section:
Rethinking The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

UPV/EHU. Theoria, Vol. 27/3, N° 75 (2012), p.                   (www.a360grados.net)

Five Decades of Structure: A Retrospective View
Juan Vicente Mayoral

Abstract:  This paper is an introduction to the special issue commemorating the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. It introduces some main ideas of Structure, as its change in historical perspective for the interpretation of scientific progress, the role and nature of scientific communities, the incommensurability concept, or the new-world problem, and summarizes some philosophical reactions. After this introduction, the special issue includes papers by Alexander Bird, Paul Hoyningen-Huene and George Reisch on different aspects of Kuhn’s work.

Keywords:  Kuhn; structure; paradigms; normal science; scientific revolutions

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UPV/EHU. Theoria, Vol. 27/3, N° 75 (2012), p.                   (www.a360grados.net)

Philosophical Elements in Thomas Kuhn's Historiography of Science
Paul Hoyningen-Huene

Abstract:  To begin, the so-called ‘selectivity of historical judgment’ is discussed. According to it, writing history requires a comparative criterion of historical relevance. This criterion contains philosophical elements. In Kuhn’s case, the criterion directs historical research and presentation away from Whiggish historiography by postulating a hermeneutic reading of historical sources. This postulate implies some sort of internalism, some sort of rationality of scientific development, and historical realism. To conclude, some consequences of Kuhn’s anti-Whiggism are discussed.

Keywords:  Historical relevance; Anti-Whiggism; internalism; rationality of science; historical realism

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UPV/EHU. Theoria, Vol. 27/3, N° 75 (2012), p.                   (www.a360grados.net)

What can cognitive science tell us about scientific revolutions?
Alexander Bird

Abstract:  Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions is notable for the readiness with which it drew on the results of cognitive psychology. These naturalistic elements were not well received and Kuhn did not subsequently develop them in his pub- lished work. Nonetheless, in a philosophical climate more receptive to naturalism, we are able to give a more positive evaluation of Kuhn’s proposals. Recently, philosophers such as Nersessian, Nickles, Andersen, Barker, and Chen have used the results of work on case-based reasoning, analogical thinking, dynamic frames, and the like to illuminate and develop various aspects of Kuhn’s thought in Structure. In particular this work aims to give depth to the Kuhnian concepts of a paradigm and incommensurability. I review this work and identify two broad strands of research. One emphasizes work on concepts; the other focusses on cognitive habits. After contrasting these, I argue that the conceptual strand fails to be a complete account of scientific revolutions. We need a broad approach that draws on a variety of resources in psychology and cognitive science.

Keywords:  Kuhn; cognitive science; incommensurability; scientific revolutions

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UPV/EHU. Theoria, Vol. 27/3, N° 75 (2012), p.                   (www.a360grados.net)

The Paranoid Style in American History of Science
George Reisch

Abstract:  Historian Richard Hofstadter’s observations about American cold-war politics are used to contextualize Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and argue that substantive claims about the nature of scientific knowledge and scientific change found in Structure were adopted from this cold-war political culture

Keywords:  Thomas S. Kuhn; The Structure of Scientific Revolutions; Richard Hofstadter; “The Paranoid Style in American Politics;” Cold War; James B. Conant; Brainwashing

Articles              -------------------------------------------------------

UPV/EHU. Theoria, Vol. 27/3, N° 75 (2012), p.                   (www.a360grados.net)

Abduction of Generalizations
Tjerk Gauderis, Frederik Van De Putte

Abstract:  Abduction of generalizations is the process in which explanatory hypotheses are formed for an observed, yet puzzling generalization such as ``pineapples taste sweet" or ``rainbows appear when the sun breaks through the rain". This phenomenon has received little attention in formal logic and philosophy of science. The current paper remedies this lacuna by first giving an overview of some general characteristics of this process, elaborating on its ubiquity in scientific and daily life reasoning. Second, the adaptive logic $\LAG$ is presented to explicate this process formally.

Keywords:  hypothesis formation; abduction patterns; adaptive logics

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UPV/EHU. Theoria, Vol. 27/3, N° 75 (2012), p.                   (www.a360grados.net)

The parallelogram law in the works of d’Alembert and Kant
Carmen Martinez-Adame

Abstract:  We compare two approaches given to the parallelogram law as a fundamental notion in eighteenth century mechanics. The authors we study are Kant and d’Alembert and we use the context created by Newton’s Principia as our point of departure.

Keywords:  Parallelogram law; composition of motion; phoronomy

Book Reviews
 

Frigg and Hunter, eds. 2010. Beyond Mimesis and Convention
Marion Vorms

Gomila. 2012. Verbal Minds
Víctor Fernández Castro

Moulines. 2011. El desarrollo moderno de la Filosofía de la Ciencia
María Caamaño

Skyrms. 2010. Signals: Evolution, Learning, and Information
Jesús Zamora Bonilla