kuhn vs. popper
Philosophers: Karl Popper & Thomas Kuhn
A. In the texts we have read, science and myth have emerged as two important ways in which we understand and relate ourselves to the world. Focusing on at least two texts, critically discuss and contrast the theories of science and/or myth presented therein. Note that you can focus just on science, just on myth, or on both. Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn are two monumental figures of twentieth century philosophy of science. Although Popper and Kuhn have dissimilar approaches as to how science “works”, practicing scientists of today apply their revolutionary ideas. In Popper’s Conjectures and Refutations, the implication is made that science must begin with myth, which will directly lead to the critique of such myth. Concurrently, in Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions, he suggests that science is not accumulated “linearly” but is rather subject to “paradigm shifts”. With two different theories of science in philosophy, one that attempts to repudiate the inductivist form of the scientific method, the other a consensus of commendable instances of scientific research, it is made apparent that…THESIS Conjectures and Refutations is a rather inquisitive piece in which Popper decides to question the unquestioned, to ask not, “When is a theory true?” but sets out to discover where the deviation from science to pseudo-science is. The most acceptable answer to this inquiry is simply that science uses the empirical method, a method that uses observations and experiments. Popper, however, strongly opposes this idea and continues writing in an attempt to dismantle the belief previously stated.
Popper analyzes the empirical method and draws a few conclusions that he believes to be true. He deems that it is easy to obtain confirmation of a theory if we are looking for such confirmation. This is also known as confirmation bias. In context, Popper makes reference to Karl Marx and history, Sigmund Freud and psycho-analysis, and
A. In the texts we have read, science and myth have emerged as two important ways in which we understand and relate ourselves to the world. Focusing on at least two texts, critically discuss and contrast the theories of science and/or myth presented therein. Note that you can focus just on science, just on myth, or on both. Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn are two monumental figures of twentieth century philosophy of science. Although Popper and Kuhn have dissimilar approaches as to how science “works”, practicing scientists of today apply their revolutionary ideas. In Popper’s Conjectures and Refutations, the implication is made that science must begin with myth, which will directly lead to the critique of such myth. Concurrently, in Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions, he suggests that science is not accumulated “linearly” but is rather subject to “paradigm shifts”. With two different theories of science in philosophy, one that attempts to repudiate the inductivist form of the scientific method, the other a consensus of commendable instances of scientific research, it is made apparent that…THESIS Conjectures and Refutations is a rather inquisitive piece in which Popper decides to question the unquestioned, to ask not, “When is a theory true?” but sets out to discover where the deviation from science to pseudo-science is. The most acceptable answer to this inquiry is simply that science uses the empirical method, a method that uses observations and experiments. Popper, however, strongly opposes this idea and continues writing in an attempt to dismantle the belief previously stated.
Popper analyzes the empirical method and draws a few conclusions that he believes to be true. He deems that it is easy to obtain confirmation of a theory if we are looking for such confirmation. This is also known as confirmation bias. In context, Popper makes reference to Karl Marx and history, Sigmund Freud and psycho-analysis, and
Cited: Hume, David. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909-14. eBook. Kuhn, Thomas. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962. eBook. Popper, Karl. Conjectures and Refutations. Routledge Classics, 1963. eBook.