Kuhn's changing concept of incommensurability

British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 44 (4):759-774 (1993)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Since 1962 Kuhn's concept of incommensurability has undergone a process of transformation. His current account of incommensurability has little in common with his original account of it. Originally, incommensurability was a relation of methodological, observational and conceptual disparity between paradigms. Later Kuhn restricted the notion to the semantical sphere and assimilated it to the indeterminacy of translation. Recently he has developed an account of it as localized translation failure between subsets of terms employed by theories.

Similar books and articles

Pragmatic Incommensurability.John Collier - 1984 - PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1984:146 - 153.
Taxonomic incommensurability.Howard Sankey - 1998 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 12 (1):7 – 16.
Multisemiosis and Incommensurability.S. K. Arun Murthi & Sundar Sarukkai - 2009 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 23 (3):297-311.
Implications of Incommensurability.Philip Kitcher - 1982 - PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1982:689 - 703.
Thomas Kuhn‘s Latest Notion of Incommensurability.Xiang Chen - 1997 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 28 (2):257-273.
Local Incommensurability and Communicability.Xiang Chen - 1990 - PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1990:67 - 76.
Did Tom Kuhn actually meet Tom bayes?Lefteris Farmakis - 2008 - Erkenntnis 68 (1):41 - 53.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
805 (#18,982)

6 months
188 (#15,605)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Howard Sankey
University of Melbourne

Citations of this work

Meta‐Skepticism.Olle Risberg - 2023 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 106 (3):541-565.
Realism and the Epistemic Objectivity of Science.Howard Sankey - 2021 - Kriterion - Journal of Philosophy 35 (1):5-20.
Taxonomic incommensurability.Howard Sankey - 1998 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 12 (1):7 – 16.
Realism, Progress and the Historical Turn.Howard Sankey - 2017 - Foundations of Science 22 (1):201-214.

View all 41 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Ontological relativity.W. V. O. Quine - 1968 - Journal of Philosophy 65 (7):185-212.
Realism and truth.Michael Devitt - 1984 - Cambridge, Mass., USA: Blackwell.
The Structure of scientific theories.Frederick Suppe (ed.) - 1974 - Urbana,: University of Illinois Press.

View all 31 references / Add more references