Science

Science’s dependence on philosophy — Kuhn, Toulmin, Heidegger, and the pomo

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A strong claim from historian of science Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: “Every civilization of which we have records has possessed a technology, an art, a religion, a political system, laws, and so on. In many cases those facets of civilization have been as developed as our own. But only the civilizations that […]

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Thomas Kuhn’s De-Structuring Science [Open College podcast]

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Episode 37 in my Open College with Dr. Stephen Hicks podcast series. Why is Thomas Kuhn so frequently cited by postmodernists and other skeptics? Kuhn was professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, a classic in the history and philosophy of science. Still relevant to our philosophical and

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Science journalism for non-experts on the climate change issue

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I understand: (1) Climate is not weather, except when it is. (2) Global warming means milder winters but also harsher winters. Far from expert on the issue, but can USA Today please up its science-journalism game? The video accompanying this article promises to explain why “Climate change is making winters colder despite rising temperatures and

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Kuhn on the Greeks’ unique creation of scientific culture

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Sparked by some recent conversation, here again is a striking quotation from Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: “Every civilization of which we have records has possessed a technology, an art, a religion, a political system, laws, and so on. In many cases those facets of civilization have been as developed as our own.

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Is Newton’s *Principia* a rape manual?

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From the “Did he/she really say that?” file. Here is adversarial-feminist philosopher Sandra Harding on Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica: “why is it not as illuminating and honest to refer to Newton’s laws as ‘Newton’s rape manual’ as it is to call them ‘Newton’s mechanics’?”[1] How did she get there? Well, Francis Bacon did say that

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