Abstract
In this essay I argue that T. S. Kuhn, at least in his later works, can be regarded as a perspectival realist. This is a retrospective interpretation based mainly on the essays published posthumously under the title The Road Since Structure (Kuhn 2000). Among the strongest grounds for this interpretation is that Kuhn explicitly states that one must have a “lexicon” in place before raising questions about the truth or falsity of claims made using elements of the lexicon. This, in a linguistic framework, can be understood as an affirmation of perspectival realism. The essay concludes with an examination of Donald Davidson’s famous paper, “On The Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme,” arguing, along lines Kuhn himself suggested, that Davidson’s presentation is no threat to his notion of a conceptual scheme, or, I would add, a theoretical perspective.
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Notes
This volume also includes a transcript of an extensive autobiographical discussion that took place in Athens in 1995. I think these later works deserve more attention than they seem to have been given.
For a short discussion of “perspectives and paradigms,” see Giere (2006, 82–84).
That Kant’s position can be understood as a version of perspectivism is the theme of (Palmquist 1993).
For an extended insightful examination of Kuhn’s lexical turn, see Hacking (1993).
Thus, van Fraassen characterizes scientific realism as follows: Science aims to give us, in its theories, a literally true story of what the world is like; and acceptance of a scientific theory involves the belief that it is true (1980, 8).
I do not know whether Putnam himself, in his many publications, ever used the term “perspectival realism” (I rather doubt it), but internal realism has been publicly labeled as such by, for example, Simon Blackburn (1994).
I have independently sketched a similar critique of the causal theory of reference (2006, 130, n. 37). See also Weisberg (2005).
This is also Hacking’s (1993) conclusion.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Rogier De Langhe for suggesting that I contribute a paper to his proposed collection celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
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Giere, R.N. Kuhn as Perspectival Realist. Topoi 32, 53–57 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-012-9142-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-012-9142-y