The Last Writings of Thomas S. Kuhn: Incommensurability in Science

by Thomas S. Kuhn, Bojana Mladenovic (Editor)

Overview

A must-read follow-up to The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, one of the most important books of the twentieth century. 

This book contains the text of Thomas S. Kuhn’s unfinished book, The Plurality of Worlds: An Evolutionary Theory of Scientific Development, which Kuhn himself described as a return to the central claims of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and the problems that it raised but did not resolve. The Plurality of Worlds is preceded by two related texts that Kuhn publicly delivered but never published in English: his paper “Scientific Knowledge as Historical Product” and his Shearman Memorial Lectures, “The Presence of Past Science.” An introduction by the editor describes the origins and structure of The Plurality of Worlds and sheds light on its central philosophical problems. 

Kuhn’s aims in his last writings are bold. He sets out to develop an empirically grounded theory of meaning that would allow him to make sense of both the possibility of historical understanding and the inevitability of incommensurability between past and present science. In his view, incommensurability is fully compatible with a robust notion of the real world that science investigates, the rationality of scientific change, and the idea that scientific development is progressive.  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226833316
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	05/08/2024
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Thomas S. Kuhn (1922-96) was the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His books include The Essential Tension; Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity, 1894-1912; and The Copernican Revolution.

Bojana Mladenović is professor of philosophy at Williams College. She is the author of Kuhn’s Legacy: Epistemology, Metaphilosophy, and Pragmatism. 

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Table of Contents

Editor’s Introduction
Editor’s Note
Thomas S. Kuhn: Scientific Knowledge as Historical Product
Abstract for “The Presence of Past Science (The Shearman Memorial Lectures)”
Thomas S. Kuhn: The Presence of Past Science (The Shearman Memorial Lectures)
    Lecture I: Regaining the Past
    Lecture II: Portraying the Past
    Lecture III: Embodying the Past
Abstract for The Plurality of Worlds: An Evolutionary Theory of Scientific Development
Thomas S. Kuhn: The Plurality of Worlds: An Evolutionary Theory of Scientific Development
    Acknowledgments
    Part I: The Problem
        Chapter 1: Scientific Knowledge as Historical Product
        Chapter 2: Breaking into the Past
        Chapter 3: Taxonomy and Incommensurability
    Part II: A World of Kinds
        Chapter 4: Biological Prerequisites to Linguistic Description: Track and Situations
        Chapter 5: Natural Kinds: How Their Names Mean
        Chapter 6: Practices, Theories, and Artefactual Kinds
Bibliography
Editor’s Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

"The Last Writings pave the way for the development of new approaches by epistemologists, providing useful philosophical tools. More generally, this collection gives elements of answers to classical problems, such as the relationship between language and the world or the status of truth in science."

Quarterly Review of Biology - Alexandre Francq and Sylvain Billiard

Combining Kuhn’s unfinished last book, The Plurality of Worlds, with two related works not previously available in English, and a substantial and illuminating introduction by editor Bojana Mladenović, The Last Writings of Thomas S. Kuhn will be received as an absolute gem by philosophers of science, as well as by the wide swath of academics across the social sciences and humanities who revere Kuhn.

Cheryl Misak

"Readers can see Kuhn grappling with the differences between his own needs, as a philosopher and historian, and the needs of current scientists. . . . When we 'transition between worlds' today, many of us habitually presume that, in disagreements, our opponents are simply lying. Of course, this happens sometimes. But more common, I think, are interactions involving the Kuhnian difficulties of translation. One of the enduring lessons from Thomas Kuhn is that of just how difficult it is to imagine the mental lives of others, and of just how easily truths can be lost in their transit from one mind to another."

3 Quarks Daily - David Kordahl

A fascinating sketch of Kuhn’s mature thought. . . . The proponents of competing paradigms may practice their trades in different worlds, but, as Kuhn was at pains to stress in his last writings, sometimes those worlds are closer than we think.

Los Angeles Review of Books - Paul Dicken

"After being on the wish-list of many historians and philosophers of science for decades, The Last Writings of Thomas S. Kuhn are finally available and open to discussion for interested readers. . . .  The editor obviously did detailed and hard work on the manuscripts, some of which were left unfinished and required substantial engagement with the pieces, notes, and a significant knowledge of Kuhn’s person, intention, and works. The editorial work is also reflected in the additional notes at the end of the volume—explaining some of Kuhn’s mysterious remarks, mistakes, or unfinished sections—and a short index. . . . Leaving plenty of space for further discussion and comparisons, one remains in a state of puzzlement when asked whether The Last Writings belongs to philosophy, sociology, or history of science, or perhaps to the even newer trends of history and philosophy of science. The sciences, including psychology, neurology, comparative anthropology, and cognitive enterprises, are marching forward, providing sufficient material for philosophers to engage with."

Metascience - Adam Tamas Tuboly

"Mladenović's edition of some of Kuhn’s last and most valuable writings is a gem for philosophers of science. . . . The writings of his last stage as a philosopher of science exhibit a profound awareness of the intricacies and consequences of his particular approach to the field. A careful reading of this volume shows this and many other interpretive keys for Kuhn’s philosophy of science. I hope that this brief summary of the volume will do as an invitation to read and reread this wonderful incomplete treatise. Kuhn’s thinking is still alive in these pages."

Journal for General Philosophy

10/10/2022

Thomas S. Kuhn’s seminal 1962 history The Structure of Scientific Revolutions gets a posthumous follow-up in this complex volume edited by Mladenovic (Kuhn’s Legacy), a philosophy professor at Williams College. Mladenovic explains that Kuhn was not happy with how the book was received, believing that “both his critics and would-be followers seriously misunderstood” it; he worked on a subsequent account titled The Plurality of Worlds: An Evolutionary Theory of Scientific Development for years, but died in 1996 before finishing. Mladenovic presents the five extant chapters of the book, along with a previously unpublished essay and a series of lectures Kuhn delivered at University College London. The “fundamental concept” of his second book centers on his idea of incommensurability, which suggests that “the difficulties of translating science are far more like those of translating literature than has generally been supposed.” And as Mladenovic writes, Kuhn believed that “in order to understand science, we must understand its history.” While Mladenovic provides a comprehensive and thoughtful introduction to the work, the technical, jargony nature of Kuhn’s text makes for difficult reading. Philosophy lovers who stay the course, though, will find plenty to chew on. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"This book offers an editorial reconstruction of Thomas Kuhn's uncompleted final work, The Plurality of Worlds. . . Kuhn argues for a view of past and current science as empirically grounded and scientific change as rational, while retaining the insight that competing scientific paradigms are incommensurable. . . Recommended."

Choice

"The road from The Structure of Scientific Revolutions to the drafts in Last Writings was, to a large extent, a long walk back—Kuhn’s attempt to clarify, revise, secure, and modify the ‘purple passages,' to dissociate himself and his book from the vulgar and the relativists. In one matter, however, he stuck firmly to a sentiment in the book that had given aid and comfort to the supposed ‘enemies of science.' You should not, Kuhn had written, think that scientific change brought practitioners ‘closer and closer to the truth.'"

London Review of Books - Steven Shapin

"Mladenović's edition of some of Kuhn’s last and most valuable writings is a gem for philosophers of science. . . . The writings of his last stage as a philosopher of science exhibit a profound awareness of the intricacies and consequences of his particular approach to the field. A careful reading of this volume shows this and many other interpretive keys for Kuhn’s philosophy of science. I hope that this brief summary of the volume will do as an invitation to read and reread this wonderful incomplete treatise. Kuhn’s thinking is still alive in these pages."

Journal for General Philosophy of Science - Juan V. Mayoral

"The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) by philosopher of science Kuhn is ‘indispensable reading for every well-educated person,’ writes philosopher Mladenović in her introduction to this collection. She presents unpublished drafts of a reworking of Structure’s philosophical framework, with the texts of two lectures not previously published in English. Together, these explore whether historians can understand past scientific paradigms, even though these are incommensurable with present science."

Nature - Andrew Robinson

"Mladenović . . . has done a great service with her new book The Last Writings of Thomas S Kuhn. Containing the unfinished draft of a book that Kuhn was still working on when he died in 1996, Last Writings brings much needed clarity to Kuhn’s philosophy and his understanding of how science develops. . . . Granted, Kuhn’s work was unfinished, but hopefully, the Last Writings will reinvigorate conversations about incommensurability for years to come."

Physics World - Gino Elia

"After being on the wish-list of many historians and philosophers of science for decades, The Last Writings of Thomas S. Kuhn are finally available and open to discussion for interested readers. . . .  The editor obviously did detailed and hard work on the manuscripts, some of which were left unfinished and required substantial engagement with the pieces, notes, and a significant knowledge of Kuhn’s person, intention, and works. The editorial work is also reflected in the additional notes at the end of the volume—explaining some of Kuhn’s mysterious remarks, mistakes, or unfinished sections—and a short index. . . . Leaving plenty of space for further discussion and comparisons, one remains in a state of puzzlement when asked whether The Last Writings belongs to philosophy, sociology, or history of science, or perhaps to the even newer trends of history and philosophy of science. The sciences, including psychology, neurology, comparative anthropology, and cognitive enterprises, are marching forward, providing sufficient material for philosophers to engage with."

Metascience

"Readers can see Kuhn grappling with the differences between his own needs, as a philosopher and historian, and the needs of current scientists. . . . When we 'transition between worlds' today, many of us habitually presume that, in disagreements, our opponents are simply lying. Of course, this happens sometimes. But more common, I think, are interactions involving the Kuhnian difficulties of translation. One of the enduring lessons from Thomas Kuhn is that of just how difficult it is to imagine the mental lives of others, and of just how easily truths can be lost in their transit from one mind to another."

3 Quarks Daily

"The road from The Structure of Scientific Revolutions to the drafts in Last Writings was, to a large extent, a long walk back—Kuhn’s attempt to clarify, revise, secure, and modify the ‘purple passages,' to dissociate himself and his book from the vulgar and the relativists. In one matter, however, he stuck firmly to a sentiment in the book that had given aid and comfort to the supposed ‘enemies of science.' You should not, Kuhn had written, think that scientific change brought practitioners ‘closer and closer to the truth.'"

London Review of Books