Abstract

BIRD, Alexander. The philosophy of history of science of Thomas Kuhn. discus.filos [online]. 2012, vol.13, n.21, pp.167-185. ISSN 0124-6127.

In this article, I argue that Kuhn was a historicist in two respects. First, he was a conservative in Mannheim's sense -tradition is important for understanding scientific change, and the evaluation of a scientific idea is relative to historical context. Secondly, Kuhn embraced determinism -there is a pattern to scientific change, akin to laws of scientific development. I show that Kuhn's determinism requires that he is an internalist about the causes of scientific change; Kuhn's internalism contrasts with the externalism that characterizes much post-Kuhnian science studies. I conclude by considering how Kuhn's historicism relates to the philosophical purposes of Kuhn's history of science.

Keywords : determinism; externalism; historicism; internalism.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )