Posted on 08/19/2008 8:10:30 PM PDT by Mazeman
Well you could have fooled me; great minds think alike, I guess.
I really don’t think you can go wrong reading Structures. It is one of the most highly readable works in the area of Philosophy of Science ever written, and there isn’t a dull page in it. You don’t have to agree with Kuhn to be staggered by his brilliance. He singlehandedly exploded for all of time the myth that science advances by way of the vaunted “Scientific Method.” As Kuhn illustrates with scintillating historical examples, only Micro-Science advances that way. All major/macro advances occur when the weight of anomalies not explained by the prevailing scientific paradigm push at least one trail-blazing scientist to a “paradigm shift.” (Yes, Kuhn coined the phrase.) Think Einstein rejecting Newtonian physics in favor or Relativity. Anybody who believes this shift occurred in a calm, rational, ‘scientific method’ way is a historical ignoramus. It was more like religious zealots fighting blindly for their ‘faith’ of choice.
That gives you the gist of it, anyway. If you do find time to read it, I can almost guarantee you won’t regret it. (Also, if you’ve ever bumped up against Post Modernism, you largely have Kuhn to thank. As such, it’s helpful to know how he brought about such a major intellectual shift, when in point of fact his sole focus was philosophy of science, not philosophy in general.)
LGF is about the trashiest blog on the web. Why one would want to be a member there is beyond me.
Please don't insult FR by comparing it with that piece of crap site.
They were big on the green helmet guy, + doctored photos from last years Beirut fighting.
Um, no you don’t. Sometimes all you have to do is look for a banned poster. Charles is the owner of the blog, and that’s fair that he can invite whomever he wants to the party. The problem is, he doesn’t make the rules known with 100% full disclosure.
One of the banned was whacked because he defended a poster who uses an assumed name. Now that in itself is normal over there, unless you think someone’s mother actually named their kid “taxfreekiller.”
I will let the two of you fight it out. My comment was not intended to be serious. I was teasing. Little Green Footballs/.....I could not give a sh*t less.
As the French say,
"D'accord."
Cheers!
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