Write on one of the topics below (for roughly 4-5 pp. or 1200-1500 words).

This paper is intended to be an occasion for you to reflect on issues raised by The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, but the questions below have been intentionally stated in the form they might be asked by someone who isn’t familiar with Kuhn. Part of your task will be to show how Kuhn’s ideas serve to answer the question you address, perhaps changing the question in the process. Remember that I will be using this paper to evaluate your own thinking about these issues as well as your understanding of Kuhn, so be careful to go beyond a mere summary of what Kuhn says. One way to do more is to use something like the format I asked you to use in the last paper—that is, you might consider Kuhn’s position critically, looking at arguments that might be made both on his behalf and against him and offering your own evaluation of the arguments one each side.

Since this paper is longer than the last one, I will be expecting you to go further than in that paper, both in your exposition and in your discussion of arguments on each side of the issue you consider. “Going further” does not mean choosing a broader topic but rather discussing your topic in greater depth. In particular, you should give more attention to your evaluation of the arguments on each side; be especially careful not to confine this part of your paper to a brief conclusion. Indeed, it would be reasonable (though I won’t require this) to divide your paper into thirds, devoting one each to an exposition of Kuhn’s views on an issue, an opposing position, and your evaluation of the relative strength of the two sides.

If you disagree with Kuhn’s views on the issue you are considering, it may be hard to distinguish your presentation of objections to Kuhn’s views from your evaluation of the strength of the two sides. In this sort of case, you can go one step beyond your exposition of Kuhn’s and presentation of your objections by explicitly discussing responses you think Kuhn might make to your objections. Similarly, if you agree with Kuhn, you might think of how someone who opposes the two of you would respond to your defense of Kuhn against objections.

Topics

The following are only a sample of the possible questions and you should not hesitate to look for others. Please do seek my approval, though, since you may need help in formulating your topic in a way that doesn’t presuppose familiarity with Kuhn.