Thomas Kuhn’s Philosophy of Science
Douglas Giles, PhD dgilesphilosopher.medium.com Douglas Giles
We are a civilization increasingly dominated by science and technology. What effects that has on us goes far beyond simply having new tools that make our lives easier. We’ve seen a number of…
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Medium
We are a civilization increasingly dominated by science and technology. What effects that has on us goes far beyond simply having new tools that make our lives easier. We’ve seen a number of philosophers who were critical of science, and that critique continues. Some speak of a crisis of science in that science’s pervasive reach into our lives is largely unquestioned, despite the real possibility that our science can harm if not destroy us. We can’t afford to pretend that science is value neutral — science will reflect our values. The question then becomes what values do we want science to reflect?

Simply put, philosophy of science is the philosophical exploration of the roots and methods of scientific inquiry. Every discipline of science has its own corresponding “philosophy of ___” that examines the underlying foundations of that scientific discipline and the implications of the questions and results generated by that discipline. Like most philosophy, though, a serious exploration of science is not simple. Like all good philosophy, philosophy of science tries to improve our understanding and quality of life, and like all good philosophy, it does not simply accept the dominant paradigm. The dominant paradigms of science have been positivism and coherentism. Positivism basically is the assumption that scientific statements are verified through observation and reason. “Coherentism” is the idea that scientific statements are justified by being part…