-
event 1 Introduction
Thomas Kuhn has been a novel introduction into the philosophy of science. Not including the students he continues to influence, he was able to influence and inspire a great amount of thought in the community. His major advancement in science was through his book "the structure of scientific revolutions" which describes the development of science. We will look at key topics within his book and analyze them for their scientific contribution and value. -
event 2 incommensurability and Popper
One of Kuhn's famous concepts was incommensurability, which was directly debating Popper's falsifiability. Kuhn suggested that it is impractical if not impossible to compare two paradigms and therefore you can't label something as good science, or better science. These debates amongst others have inspired others for generations to come, such as in the book "Kuhn vs popper: The struggle for the Soul of Science". -
event 3 Lakatos's thoughts
Lakatos was able to derive a methodolgy for science through the combined views of Kuhn and Popper. Using their contributions to science, lakatos was able to define a research program as having a "common hard core". -
event 4 Combined efforts
The trio of thinkers have set the foundation for the philosophy of science, and set up the standards in which we conduct science now. I have deviated perhaps by not singling out Kuhn in this assignment, however his contributions to science was a "group project". One such example is Ian hacking, who was inspired by the debates proposed by the three philosophers. He wrote his book "The Emergence of Probability" in 1975 using the inspiration gathered from the trio.
