History of science and sociology of science - the sociological aspects of Thomas S. Kuhn's conception of the development of knowledge

• Authors: Kopczynska E.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The paper analyses Thomas S. Kuhn's theory of the development of sciences interpreted as a sociological conception. The authoress' attention is focused on the notion of confidence and on the function performed in the history of science by mechanisms that occur in the scientific community. The innovatory ways of thinking are pointed out on the basis of comparison of Kuhn's and Popper's ideas. Such an innovation in thinking could be perceived from the point of view of the traditional, philosophical reflection on science. She presents Kuhn's vision of dealing with history defined as 'hermeneutic', as well as his convictions of the dangers connected with the application of radical historicism to social sciences. In her opinion, thanks to the moderate character of the theory of scientific revolution Th. S. Kuhn was able to avoid controversial thesis of constructivism and to maintain the independence of the categories of rationality. The result of such an attitude was, however, a fundamental lack of cohesion in his proposal and indissolubility in some of the basic questions on the identity of scientific statements. Other approaches to the science, the ones parallel to that of Kuhn, have been pointed out in the paper: Stefan Amsterdamski's conception of ideal science and the stricte sociological proposal by Florian Znaniecki, one presented in his 'Social role of the scholar Man of knowledge'.

Keywords

EN

COMMUNITY OF SCHOLARS; KUHN'S THEORY; SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION; SOCIOLOGY OF SCIENCE

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: The Kraków Branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Historyka studia metodologiczne
• Year: 2005
• Volume: 35
• Pages: 23-35
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Kopczynska E.

• E. Kopczynska, c/o Uniwersytet Jagiellonski, Instytut Socjologii, Zaklad Antropologii Spolecznej, ul. Grodzka 52, 31-044 Kraków, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

06PLAAAA01343010