Kuhn VS. Popper: The Struggle For The Soul Of Science

by
Edition: 1st
Format: Hardcover
Pub. Date: 2005-01-01
Publisher(s): COLUMBIA UNIV PRESS
List Price: $32.00

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Summary

Thomas Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutionshas sold over a million copies in more than twenty languages and has remained one of the ten most cited academic works for the past half century. In contrast, Karl Popper's seminal book The Logic of Scientific Discoveryhas lapsed into relative obscurity. Although the two men debated the nature of science only once, the legacy of this encounter has dominated intellectual and public discussions on the topic ever since.Almost universally recognized as the modern watershed in the philosophy of science, Kuhn's relativistic vision of shifting paradigms -- which asserted that science was just another human activity, like art or philosophy, only more specialized -- triumphed over Popper's more positivistic belief in science's revolutionary potential to falsify society's dogmas. But has this victory been beneficial for science? Steve Fuller argues that not only has Kuhn's dominance had an adverse impact on the field but both thinkers have been radically misinterpreted in the process. This debate raises a vital question: Can science remain an independent, progressive force in society, or is it destined to continue as the technical wing of the military-industrial complex? Drawing on original research -- including the Kuhn archives at MIT -- Fuller offers a clear account of "Kuhn vs. Popper" and what it will mean for the future of scientific inquiry.

Table of Contents

Preface to the U.S. Edition vii
Introduction 1(6)
In Search of the Causes of a Non-Event
7(5)
Kuhn and Popper: A Case of Mistaken Identities
12(9)
Popperian Suspicions and Kuhnian Vindication
21(4)
We've Been Here Before: The Prehistory of the Debate
25(9)
Dialectics as the Pulse of Scientific Progress
34(6)
A Parting Shot at the Misunderstanding
40(3)
Why Philosophers Get No Respect from Scientists
43(6)
So, Why Are Philosophers of Science Pro-Science?
49(4)
The Return of the Repressed: Philosophers as Tory Historians of Science
53(5)
The Religious Unconscious of the Debate
58(6)
Do We Believe by Evidence or by Decision? A Very Short History of Epistemology
64(6)
The University as the Absent Presence of the Kuhn--Popper Debate
70(11)
Popper and Adorno United: The Rationalist Left at Positivism's Wake
81(6)
Popper and Adorno Divided: The Rationalist Left Haunted by Historicism
87(9)
How to Be Responsible for Ideas---the Popperian Way
96(6)
Failing the Popperian Test for Intellectual Responsibility: Rorty on Heidegger
102(8)
Is Thomas Kuhn the American Heidegger?
110(13)
Glossary 123(6)
Further Reading 129(6)
Index 135

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