Conceptual Development and Dynamic Realism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12697/spe.2012.5.2.09Keywords:
Kuhn, scientific concepts, family resemblance, conceptual change, taxonomies, categorizationAbstract
This paper focuses on Thomas S. Kuhn's work on taxonomic concepts and how it relates to empirical work from the cognitive sciences on categorization and conceptual development. I shall first review the basic features of Kuhn's family resemblance account and compare to work from the cognitive sciences. I shall then show how Kuhn's account can be extended to cover the development of new taxonomies in science, and I shall illustrate by a detailed case study that Kuhn himself mentioned only briefly in his own work, namely the discovery of X-rays and radioactivity.
Downloads
References
Ahn, W. (1998). Why are different features central for natural kinds and artifacts? The role of causal status in determining feature centrality, Cognition 69:135-178.
Andersen, H.(2001). Reference and resemblance, Philosophy of Science 68:S51-S61.
Andersen, H.(2004). A dynamic account of conceptual structures, in L. Ping, X. Chen, Z. Zhilina nd Z. Huaxia (eds), Science, Cognition, and Consciousness, The Proceeding of the International Conference of Philoshy and Cognitive Sciences, Jiangxi People’s Press, Guangzhou, pp.118-140.
Andersen, H. (forthcoming). Concepts and conceptual change, in V. Kindi and T. Arabatzis (eds), Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions revisited, Routledge.
Arabatzis, T. (2008). Experimenting on (and with) hidden entities: The inextric ability of representation and intervention, in U.Feest, G.Hon, H.J.Rheinberger, J.Schickore and F.Steinle (eds), Generating Experimental Knowledge, Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin, pp.7-18.
Arabatzis, T. (forthcoming). Experimentation and the meaning of scientific concepts, in U. Feest and F. Steinle (eds), Scientific Concepts and Investigative Practices, Kluwer.
Badash, L. (1966). Becquerel’s “unexposed” photographic plates, Isis 57:267-269.
Badash, L. (2005). Becquerel’s blunder, Social research 72:31-62.
Becquerel, H. (1896a). Émission de radiations nouvelles par l’uranium mÉtallique, Comptes Rendus 122:1086-1088.
Becquerel, H. (1896b). Sur les radiations Émises par phosphorescent, Comptes Rendus 122:420-421.
Becquerel, H. (1896c). Sur les radiations invisibles Émises par les corps phosphorescent, Comptes Rendus 122:501-503.
Becquerel, H. (1896d). Sur les radiations invisibles Émises par les sels d’uranium, Comptes Rendus 122:689-694.
Becquerel, H. (1896e). Sur quelques propriÉtes nouvelles des radiations invisibles Émises par divers coprs phosphorescent, Comptes Rendus 122:559-564.
Boyd, R. (1993). Metaphor and theory change: What is metaphor a metaphor for?, in A. Ortony (ed.), Metaphor and Thought, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 481-532.
Buchwald, J. (1992). Kinds and the wave theory of light, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 23:39-74.
Carey, S. (2009). The Origin of Concepts, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Chen, X. (1997). Thomas Kuhn’s latest notion of incommensurability, Journal for General Philosophy of Science 28:257-273.
Curie, M. (1898). Rayons Émis par les composÉs de l’uranium et du thorium, Comptes Rendus 126:1101-1103.
Curie, M. (1961). Radioactive Substances, Greenwood Press, Westport.
Curie, P. and Curie, M.(1898). Sur une substance nouvelle radio-active, contenue dans la pechblence, Comptes Rendus 127:175-178.
Curie, P., Curie, M. and BÉmont, G. (1898). Sur une nouvelle substance fortement radio-active, contenue dans la pechblende, Comptes Rendus 127:1215-1217.
Debierne, A. (1899). Sur une nouvelle matiÉre radio-active, Comptes Rendus 129:593-595.
Debierne, A. (1900). Sur un nouvel ÉlÉmentradioactif: l’actinium, Comptes Rendus 130:906-908.
Giesel, F. (1902). Ueber Radium und radioaktive Stoffe, Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft 35:3608-3616.
Giesel, F. (1903). Ueber den EmanationskÖrperaus Pechblende und Über Radium, Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft 36:344.
Gooding, D. (1986). How do scientists reach agreement about novel observations?, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 17:205-230.
Henry, D. (1896). Augmentation du rendement photographique des rayons Röntgen par le sulfure de zinc phosphorescent, Comptes Rendus 122:312-314.
Hoyningen-Huene, P. (1993). Constructing Scientific Revolutions. Thomas S. Kuhn’s Philosophy of Science, Chicago University Press, Chicago.
Hoyningen-Huene, P., Oberheim, E. and Andersen, H. (1996). On incommensurability, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 27:131-141.
Kipnis, N.S. (2000). The window of opportunity: Logic and chance in Becquerel’s discovery of radioactivity, Physics in Perspective 2:63-69.
Kirby, H.W. (1971). The discovery of actinium, Isis 62:290-308.
Kuhn, T. S. (1970). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Kuhn, T. S. (1974). Second thoughts on paradigms, in F. Suppe (ed.), The Structure of Scientific Theories, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, pp.293-319.
Kuhn, T. S. (1979). Metaphor in science, in A. Ortony (ed.), Metaphor and Thought, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 409-419.
Kuhn, T. S. (1990). An historian’s theory of meaning. Talk to Cognitive Science Colloquium UCLA, unpublishedmanuscript.
Kuhn, T. S. (1991). The roads in ce structure, PSA 2:3-13.
Laurence, S. and Margolis, E. (1999). Concepts and cognitive science, in E. Margolis and S. Laurence (eds), Concepts: Core Readings, MIT Press, Cambrige, MA, pp.3-81.
Malley, M. (1979). The discovery of atomic transmutation: Scientific styles and philosophies in France and Britain, Isis 70:213-223.
Malt, B.C. (1990). Features and beliefs in the mental representation of categories, Journal of Memory and Language 29:289-315.
Medin, D.L. and Ortony, A. (1989). Psychological essentialism, in S. Vosniadou and A.Ortony (eds), Similarity and analogical reasoning, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp.179-195.
Medin, D., Wattenmaker, D. and S. E., H. (1987). Family resemblance, conceptual cohesiveness, and category construction, Cognitive Psychology 19:242-279.
Murphy, G. and Medin, D. (1999). The role of theories in conceptual coherence, in E. Margolis and S. Laurence (eds), Concepts: Core Readings, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp.425-458.
Niewenglowski, G.H. (1896). Sur la proporÉtÉ qu’ont les radiations Émises par les corps phosphorescents, de traverser certains corps opaques à la lumieère solaire, et sur les expÉriences de MG.leBon, sur la lumière noire, Comptes Rendus 122:385-386.
PoincarÉ, H. (1896). Les rayons cathodiques et les rayons Röntgen, Revue GÉnÉrale des Sciences 7:52-59.
Putnam, H. (1975). The meaning of ‘meaning’, Mind, Language and Reality. Philosophical Papers Volume Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp.215-271.
Röntgen, W.K. (1896a). Eine neue Art von Strahlen, Stahel’schen K. Hofund Universitätsbuch- und Kunsthandlung, WÜrzburg.
Röntgen, W.K. (1896b). On a new kind of rays, Nature 53:274-276.
Röntgen, W.K. (1896c). On a new kind of rays, Science 3:227-231.
Romer, A. (1958). The transformation theory of radioactivity, Isis 49:3-12.
Rosch, E. (1973a). Natural categories, Cognitive Psychology 4:328-350.
Rosch, E. (1973b). On the internal structure of perceptual and semantic categories, in T.E.Moore (ed.), Cognitive development and the acquisition of language, Academic Press, New York, pp.111-114.
Rosch, E. (1978). Principles of categorization, in E. Rosch and B.B. Lloyd (eds), Cognition and Categorization, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, pp.27-48.
Rosch, E. and Mervis, C.B. (1975). Family resemblances: Studies in the internal structure of categories, Cognitive Psychology 7:573-605.
Rosch, E., Mervis, C.B., Gray, W.D., Johnson, D.M. and Boyes-Braem, P. (1976). Basic objects in natural categories, Cognitive Psychology 8:382-439.
Rutherford, E. (1899). Uranium radiation and the electrical conduction produced by it, Philosophical Magazine 5:177-187.
Steinle, F. (1997). Entering new fields: Exploratory uses of experimentation, Philosophy of Science 64:S65-S74.
Steinle, F.(2002). Experiments in history and philosophy of science,Perspectives on Science 10:408-432.
“The Röntgen Rays” (1896). Nature 53:377-380.
Trenn, T.J. (1976). Rutherford on the alpha-beta-gamma classification of radioactive rays, Isis 67:61-75.
Villard, P. (1900a). Sur la rÉflextion et la rÉfraction des rayons cathodiques et des rayons dÉviables du radium,Comptes Rendus 130:1010-1012.
Villard, P. (1900b). Sur le rayonnement du radium, Comptes Rendus 130:1178-1179.
