Thomas Kuhn Essays (Examples)

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What they had regarded as the most certain of all theories turned out to be in need of serious revision. In reaction, they resolved never again to bestow their faith in scientific truth unconditionally. Skepticism, not certainty, became their watchword. (ibid)

The implication of Kuhn's work was that science was seen to be dependent on history. It was no longer superior to historical analysis but could only be understood within the context of history. This too is another post-modern concept which is very important in deconstruction theory. "Philosophers therefore turned to a more serious study of history than they would have considered desirable even a few years earlier. They also learned more about the internal workings of the sciences than their earlier, much more abstract epistemological approach would ever have justified or even tolerated." (ibid)

3. Postmodern thought

Thomas Kuhn's groundbreaking work in the field of the philosophy of science is often quoted….

Thomas Kuhn's Book - The
PAGES 7 WORDS 2770

esearch can be added to the paradigms through discovery, without an actual paradigm shift, or the paradigm can be completely replaced through crisis.
Scientific revolutions are sometimes so great that it can be said that with the advent of a paradigm shift, the world itself changes. However, as Kuhn (1996) sustains, the world does not actually change every time a paradigm shift occurs, although it can be said that the world does become a different place for the ones who perceive it from the point-of-view of a different paradigm. (p. 111)

In the light of Kuhn's theory, the history of past science as well of the structure of the present science and the forecast of the future developments can be defined or predicted.

The Structure of Scientific evolutions is a great step towards an understanding of the past of science as well as of the manner in which it evolves.

Evolution of science….

This was based on what little normative science could be carried out through crossing different animals. It was an accepted fact to many in the animal husbandry business. The first creative breakthrough occurred in 1868 when a young Swiss physician, Freiderich Meischer, isolated something that had not been seen before. This creative scientist isolated nucleic acid, a compound found in both DNA and RNA (Fredholm). This discovery sparked a quest to understand more about nucleic acid and its connection to Mendel's pea experiments just two years earlier. Mendel believed that the traits seen in peas were passed on through "packages" that contained the information (Fredholm). These packages later turned out to be DNA.
These discoveries led to the normal science processes and a quest to learn more about DNA and its connections to selective breeding. However, in mainstream practice, many had not heard of DNA yet, it had not reached….


The concept of the paradigm shift, however, negates the very idea that truth could ever actually be reached. Each paradigm -- which only gives way to another paradigm, leaving all knowledge and understanding ultimately tied to some semblance of foundational assumptions. There is no getting beyond the assumptions, as they are a necessary component (in Kuhn's view) of establishing any sort of causal understanding at all. Science is then, taking Kuhn's theory of paradigm shifts to its logical conclusion, ultimately and always doomed to failure if its goal is defined as the determination and explanation of truth. The goal of science must itself be redefined as a result of Kuhn's concept of the paradigm shift, unless a competing theory proves as effective in explaining scientific progress -- and captures the attention of the scientific community as well. Such paradigm shifts do not come easily, however.

Conclusion

Few -- if any -- books….

Cox communications has grown due to pushing the perceived envelope of knowledge. The fundamental foundation of the company is the paradigm shift. Technology of any type, particularly high tech such as communications have their progress predicated upon the changes occurring in organizations based on dynamics of this technology.
This is especially true in communications technologies over the internet. Cox Communications got into broadband starting in 2001 after cutting its teeth in basic internet technologies. Then in 2004, they expanded into Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and into cable broadband and telephony in 2006.("Cox communications, inc.," 2011).

Cox Communications is now the third largest cable multi-system operator in the U.S. Cox was founded in 1962 in the cable television industry. The company's expanded from initial markets included Lewistown, Lock Haven and Tyrone in Pennsylvania. From then until now, Cox has become a multi-service broadband communications provider and is currently the cable industry's….

Pynchon Bibliography
Thomas Pynchon: Annotated Bibliography

Kolodny, Annette and David James Peters. "Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49: The Novel as Subversive Experience." Modern Fiction Studies 19.1 (Spring 1973): 79-87. eb.

The authors of this article suggest that the heroine of the novel is undergoing a learning experience, and that the novel's sudden ending without revealing whether the Trystero conspiracy is real or imaginary is actually a way of demonstrating the heroine's personal growth. Kolodny and Peters argue that the function of the conspiracy in the book is to help the heroine realize that she is alienated from American life in the 1960s, and as a result the sense of waiting for a religious experience at the end of the book is a positive thing: Oedipa has finally understood herself through this process. In other words, the novel's ambiguous ending is actually a "subversive experience" for the reader, and this subversion is a….

Philosophy
Kuhn's ationale on the Irrationality of Scientific evolutions

"Communities in this sense exist, of course, at numerous levels. The most global is the community of all natural scientists."

~Thomas S. Kuhn, from The Structure of Scientific evolutions

To understand Thomas Kuhn's ideas regarding scientific revolutions, one must have a grasp on Kuhn's ideas relating to the history of science in general. Kuhn's perspective on the history of science is that scientific knowledge is not accumulative. He did not perceive the accumulation of knowledge as linear. Thus, before Kuhn explains the irrationality of scientific revolutions, he explains the irrationality of the historical picture of science in general. The paper will contend that scientific revolutions are irrational because science is irrational. As will be demonstrated by Kuhn and other authors, there is no specific logic as to why some theories and paradigms become popular and other do not. To paraphrase Kuhn, often whoever presented the….

Copernican Revolution
PAGES 4 WORDS 1318

Copernican revolution has a pivotal role in the establishment of the modern sciences. We are very much familiar with the fact that the human mind had always been fascinated greatly by the changes taking place around him almost constantly. Human observation and sense of argument and ability to be logical has made him the most intelligent and consequently most powerful species on the planet.
It is very comfortable to believe that Earth is located at the centre of the universe and other planets rotate around it because Earth itself does not seem or feel to be moving and there are only sun, moon and other planets appearing and disappearing at their exact timings. It is quite logical and unless and until something really revolutionary come forward to refute this believe, it looks quite reasonable to carry on believing the same idea (Kuhn, pp 187).

Nicholas Copernicus

The most significant change did happen at….

Two belief systems, then -- true believe, and justified true belief (Hauser, 1992).
Humans, however, according to Pierce, turn justified true beliefs into true beliefs by converting them into axioms. Once we have proven something there is no need to prove it again, and we use the part that was proven before to further extend our study and the inquisition of knowledge. And so it becomes necessary to accept things as the truth without proving them at every single moment. However, does not mean that the belief is an unjustified belief, for it again is the conflictual nature of justified against unjustified that, for scholars like Pierce, outpours a reality he can view as "true" (Ibid).

ene' Descartes' purpose was to make humans analyze the introspective nature of being, and to postulate on the veracity of truth as a nature of thought -- if we think it, it is, and for….

Philosophy of Truth One of
PAGES 9 WORDS 2626

Knowledge and truth were considered absolute and immutable by these two, though for very different reasons, which is the complete antithesis to the empirical theories of Popper, Peirce, Kuhn, and James. The progression of knowledge in the face of such certainty could only result in pure growth from previously established claims, as no truth could ever be said to exist that was not thoroughly and absolutely proved by careful extrapolation from a priori conclusions.
Several interesting anthropological occurrences have convinced me that the empirical method, with its possibility for the adjustment of truth based on the framework or paradigm from which the determination of truth is made, is a much better way of understanding truth and the concept of "absolute certainty." Cultures exist that have no concept of, or words for, time. "Yesterday" and "today" are meaningless concepts that do not exist. The extreme difficulty of communication that this presented….

A favorite target for conspiracists today as well as in the past, a group of European intellectuals created the Order of the Illuminati in May 1776, in Bavaria, Germany, under the leadership of Adam Weishaupt (Atkins, 2002). In this regard, Stewart (2002) reports that, "The 'great' conspiracy organized in the last half of the eighteenth century through the efforts of a number of secret societies that were striving for a 'new order' of civilization to be governed by a small group of 'all-powerful rulers.' The most important of these societies, and the one to which all subsequent conspiracies could be traced, is the Illuminati founded in Bavaria on May 1, 1776 by Adam Weishaupt" (p. 424). According to Atkins, it was Weishaupt's fundamental and overriding goal to form a secret organization of elite members of Europe's leading citizens who could then strive to achieve the Enlightenment version of revolutionary….

Karl Popper's Proposed Solution To The Demarcation Problem:
Popper vs. Kuhn

According to the philosopher Karl Popper, "the central problem in the philosophy of science is that of demarcation, i.e., of distinguishing between science and what he terms 'non-science'" (Thornton 2009). Colloquially, of course, all of us think we know what science is -- it is the scientific method, or the proving of a hypothesis. But even here there is confusion, given that what constitutes a scientific 'theory' is not what is meant by 'theory' when a layperson speaks. And much of what we intuitively believe to be science may not be science at all, given that it may be based more upon observed correlations and observed, personal experiences than the proving and disproving of hypotheses. According to Popper, what we call science is largely a web of hypotheses, rather than 'truth.'

Popper called the problem of distinguishing between science and non-science to….


Jean-Francois Lyotard (the Postmodern condition: A Knowledge eport 1979) describes postmodernism in the context of nature of social bond. He argues that due to the advent of the technology and with the invention of computer, information has been more restricted in the form of procedures and program. According to him some one must have access to all the information to check whether the decisions are madder correctly. He discuss in this paper about the language games which are gaining importance day by day as the communication is becoming so prominent and efficient. We can see the connecting point between Lyotard and Kuhn as well as Popper which also agree that truth is language dependent and textual interpretation vary from person to person so whole truth of knowledge is not absolutely conveyed.

PESONAL EACTION and CITIQUE:

Postmodernism seems to be overwhelmingly push everything into vagueness. The only thing according to postmodernism which is….

65). By controlling these two aspects of a scientific experiment, researchers are able to establish the specific causality of the phenomenon being studied. In this regard, Kahle and iley note that, "Traditionally, causality is established through strict control and randomization over all other factors while experimentally manipulating the variable or variables in question" (2004, p. 165). Finally, Gliner and Morgan (2000) report that the internal validity (discussed further below) and the ability to infer causality based on the results of a study can be enhanced through the random assignment of the participants to intervention vs. control groups.
b.

What is meant by internal validity and external validity in leadership research and discuss three factors within each (internal and external) validity factor?

Internal validity. According to Chandler and Lyon, generally speaking, "Validity refers to the establishment of evidence that the measurement is actually measuring the intended construct. Measures can be reliable without being….

Feelings on Technology
PAGES 4 WORDS 1164

Technology, Society & Politics
The role of technology in society, politics and economics: Analysis of the works of Kuhn, Rhodes, Christensen, Levy and Toulmin

The development of technology with the onset of the Industrial Revolution, capitalism, and modernism created significant changes in the culture and institutions of human societies. Where technology used to be associated with machinery and manufacturing, technology in the 20th century gradually became associated with computer technology. Scientific developments shifted from macro to micro; human power centered from physical labor to intellectual improvement/development. As civilization progressed towards modernism in the 20th century, technology has become more invasive to people's lives. Inevitably, technology has penetrated not only the science sector, but other institutions as well, particularly human society's culture, politics, and economy.

Indeed, the significant role that technology played in the culture, politics, and economy of modern society has been debated and expressed through discourses by famous philosophers and scholars on….

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11 Pages
Term Paper

Black Studies - Philosophy

Thomas Kuhn's the Structure of

Words: 3200
Length: 11 Pages
Type: Term Paper

What they had regarded as the most certain of all theories turned out to be in need of serious revision. In reaction, they resolved never again to bestow their…

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7 Pages
Term Paper

Evolution

Thomas Kuhn's Book - The

Words: 2770
Length: 7 Pages
Type: Term Paper

esearch can be added to the paradigms through discovery, without an actual paradigm shift, or the paradigm can be completely replaced through crisis. Scientific revolutions are sometimes so great…

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8 Pages
Research Proposal

Genetics

Thomas Kuhn's Theory of Scientific

Words: 2630
Length: 8 Pages
Type: Research Proposal

This was based on what little normative science could be carried out through crossing different animals. It was an accepted fact to many in the animal husbandry business.…

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7 Pages
Thesis

Sociology

Thomas Kuhn's Structure of Scientific

Words: 1902
Length: 7 Pages
Type: Thesis

The concept of the paradigm shift, however, negates the very idea that truth could ever actually be reached. Each paradigm -- which only gives way to another paradigm, leaving…

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2 Pages
A-Level Outline Answer

Education - Computers

Kuhn Describe What Kuhn Really

Words: 481
Length: 2 Pages
Type: A-Level Outline Answer

Cox communications has grown due to pushing the perceived envelope of knowledge. The fundamental foundation of the company is the paradigm shift. Technology of any type, particularly high…

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2 Pages
Annotated Bibliography

Literature

Thomas Pynchon Annotated Bibliography 3 Items

Words: 662
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Annotated Bibliography

Pynchon Bibliography Thomas Pynchon: Annotated Bibliography Kolodny, Annette and David James Peters. "Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49: The Novel as Subversive Experience." Modern Fiction Studies 19.1 (Spring 1973): 79-87. eb. The…

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8 Pages
Essay

Black Studies - Philosophy

Philosophy Kuhn's Rationale on the Irrationality of

Words: 2831
Length: 8 Pages
Type: Essay

Philosophy Kuhn's ationale on the Irrationality of Scientific evolutions "Communities in this sense exist, of course, at numerous levels. The most global is the community of all natural scientists." ~Thomas S. Kuhn,…

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4 Pages
Term Paper

Astronomy

Copernican Revolution

Words: 1318
Length: 4 Pages
Type: Term Paper

Copernican revolution has a pivotal role in the establishment of the modern sciences. We are very much familiar with the fact that the human mind had always been fascinated…

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9 Pages
Essay

Physics

Truth One Cannot Simply Define

Words: 3618
Length: 9 Pages
Type: Essay

Two belief systems, then -- true believe, and justified true belief (Hauser, 1992). Humans, however, according to Pierce, turn justified true beliefs into true beliefs by converting them into…

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9 Pages
Essay

Black Studies - Philosophy

Philosophy of Truth One of

Words: 2626
Length: 9 Pages
Type: Essay

Knowledge and truth were considered absolute and immutable by these two, though for very different reasons, which is the complete antithesis to the empirical theories of Popper, Peirce,…

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75 Pages
Research Proposal

Business

Delimitations Today Modern Business Systems

Words: 20751
Length: 75 Pages
Type: Research Proposal

A favorite target for conspiracists today as well as in the past, a group of European intellectuals created the Order of the Illuminati in May 1776, in Bavaria,…

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4 Pages
Admission Essay

Black Studies - Philosophy

Karl Popper's Proposed Solution to the Demarcation

Words: 1320
Length: 4 Pages
Type: Admission Essay

Karl Popper's Proposed Solution To The Demarcation Problem: Popper vs. Kuhn According to the philosopher Karl Popper, "the central problem in the philosophy of science is that of demarcation, i.e., of…

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7 Pages
Term Paper

Black Studies - Philosophy

Postmodern Philosophy Philosophers Over the

Words: 1980
Length: 7 Pages
Type: Term Paper

Jean-Francois Lyotard (the Postmodern condition: A Knowledge eport 1979) describes postmodernism in the context of nature of social bond. He argues that due to the advent of the technology…

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28 Pages
Assessment

Leadership

Interdisciplinary Approaches to Learning How

Words: 7785
Length: 28 Pages
Type: Assessment

65). By controlling these two aspects of a scientific experiment, researchers are able to establish the specific causality of the phenomenon being studied. In this regard, Kahle and…

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4 Pages
Term Paper

Sociology

Feelings on Technology

Words: 1164
Length: 4 Pages
Type: Term Paper

Technology, Society & Politics The role of technology in society, politics and economics: Analysis of the works of Kuhn, Rhodes, Christensen, Levy and Toulmin The development of technology with the onset…

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