Assignment for Fri. 10/21
Section IX
• What are Kuhn’s reasons for calling a change in paradigm a revolution (pp. 92-94)?
• Why does discovery require a non-cumulative change of paradigm (pp. 94-97)?
• Why is the same true for the invention of theory—and what are the (3) possible relations between the phenomena the new theory might concern and the old paradigm (pp. 97-98)?
• What objection to his view does he see foresee being made on the basis of the positivists’ conception of scientific theories (98-100)?
• What conflict does he see between this view and the function of paradigms (pp. 100-101)?
Assignment for Mon. 10/24
• What logical gap does he see in the positivists’ argument (pp. 101-103)?
• In what respects, both cognitive and normative, is work under a new paradigm different from (indeed “incommensurable” with) what has gone on before (pp. 103-110)? (Kuhn’s general discussion on p. 103 and pp. 108-110 sandwiches a discussion of examples on pp. 104-107.)