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Author: TheNifty

Dec 8th 2008 at 2:16:52 AM

@greylag, Khun's theory of science only claims that ScienceIsWrong (or relative, which is basically the same thing) if it is heavily misinterpreted. I'm gonna quote from TheOtherWiki here:

''In SSR, Kuhn also argues that rival paradigms are incommensurableâ€”that is, it is not possible to understand one paradigm through the conceptual framework and terminology of another rival paradigm. For many critics, for example David Stove (Popper and After, 1982), this thesis seemed to entail that theory choice is fundamentally irrational: if rival theories cannot be directly compared, then one cannot make a rational choice as to which one is better. Whether Kuhn's views had such relativistic consequences is the subject of much debate; Kuhn himself denied the accusation of relativism in the third edition of SSR, and sought to clarify his views to avoid further misinterpretation. Freeman Dyson has quoted Kuhn as saying "I am not a Kuhnian!",[3] referring to the relativism that some philosophers have developed based on his work.''

Khun himself had great faith in science, and his books can only be interpreted as saying that ScienceIsWrong if you ignore everything after his initial "this is how paradigms work" part. And the intro. And the Foreword he put in in later editions saying essentially; "goddammit, stop quoting me out of context on this".