The place of human values in the language of science: Kuhn, Saussure, and structuralism
pmid:1801303 doi:10.1007/BF00489893 Biography Historical Article Research Support Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support U.S. Gov't Non-P.H.S. B M Psaty T S Inui Disease / etiology History 19th Century History 20th Century Humans Linguistics Philosophy Medical / history* Research Science / history Social Values* PubMed Abstract NIH NLM NCBI National Institutes of Health National Center for Biotechnology Information National Library of Medicine MEDLINE
The current paradigm in medicine generally distinguishes between genetic and environmental causes of disease. Although the word "paradigm" has become a commonplace, the theories of Thomas Kuhn have not received much attention in the journals of medicine. Kuhn's structuralist method differs radically …
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PubMed
The current paradigm in medicine generally distinguishes between genetic and environmental causes of disease. Although the word "paradigm" has become a commonplace, the theories of Thomas Kuhn have not received much attention in the journals of medicine. Kuhn's structuralist method differs radically from the daily activities of the scientific method itself. Using linguistic theory, this essay offers a structuralist reading of Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Our purpose is to highlight the similarities between these structuralist models of science and language. In part, we focus on the logic that enables Kuhn to assert the priority of perception over interpretation in the history of science. To illustrate some of these issues, we refer to the distinction between environmental and genetic causes of disease. While the activity of scientific research results in the revision of concepts in science, the production of significant differences that shape our knowledge is in part a social and linguistic process.