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2 results

  • 13 - Thomas Kuhn and the Strong Programme

  • from Part IV - Kuhn’s Impact on the Philosophy, Sociology, and History of Science
  • Edited by K. Brad Wray, Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
  • Book:
    Kuhn's <i>The Structure of Scientific Revolutions</i> at 60
    Published online:
    05 January 2024
    Print publication:
    18 January 2024, pp 235-253

  • Summary

    This chapter discusses whether the appropriation of Kuhnian thoughts by the so-called Strong Programme in the sociology of scientific knowledge is appropriate. In order to answer the question of appropriate appropriation, Kuhn’s and the Strong Programme’s stances on two “isms” are compared: relativism and naturalism. It is shown that the Strong Programme clearly goes beyond Kuhn and breaks more radically with philosophical tradition. Nevertheless, there are also philosophical continuities and similarities.

Relativism in the Philosophy of Science

Relativism in the Philosophy of Science
  • Martin Kusch
  • Published online:
    19 December 2020
    Print publication:
    28 January 2021
  • 'Relativism versus absolutism' is one of the fundamental oppositions that have dominated reflections about science for much of its (modern) history. Often these reflections have been inseparable from wider social-political concerns regarding the position of science in society. Where does this debate stand in the philosophy and sociology of science today? And how does the 'relativism question' relate to current concerns with 'post truth' politics? In Relativism in the Philosophy of Science, Martin Kusch examines some of the most influential relativist proposals of the last fifty years, and the controversies they have triggered. He argues that defensible forms of relativism all deny that any sense can be made of a scientific result being absolutely true or justified, and that they all reject 'anything goes' – that is the thought that all scientific results are epistemically on a par. Kusch concludes by distinguishing between defensible forms of relativism and post-truth thinking.