Kuhn, Nominalism, and Empiricism Export

@article{citeulike:3577471, abstract = {doi: 10.1086/378860 In this paper I draw a connection between Kuhn and the empiricist legacy, specifically between his thesis of incommensurability, in particular in its later taxonomic form, and van Fraassen's constructive empiricism. I show that if it is the case the empirically equivalent but genuinely distinct theories do exist, then we can expect such theories to be taxonomically incommensurable. I link this to Hacking's claim that Kuhn was a nominalist. I also argue that Kuhn and van Fraassen do not differ as much as might be thought as regards the claim that observation is theory laden.}, author = {Bird, Alexander}, citeulike-article-id = {3577471}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/378860}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/378860}, day = {1}, doi = {10.1086/378860}, journal = {Philosophy of Science}, keywords = {knowledge, philosophy, philosophy-science}, month = {October}, number = {4}, pages = {690--719}, posted-at = {2008-11-19 08:13:58}, priority = {2}, title = {Kuhn, Nominalism, and Empiricism}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/378860}, volume = {70}, year = {2003} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:3577471 L3 - citeulike-article-id:3577471 N2 - doi: 10.1086/378860 In this paper I draw a connection between Kuhn and the empiricist legacy, specifically between his thesis of incommensurability, in particular in its later taxonomic form, and van Fraassen's constructive empiricism. I show that if it is the case the empirically equivalent but genuinely distinct theories do exist, then we can expect such theories to be taxonomically incommensurable. I link this to Hacking's claim that Kuhn was a nominalist. I also argue that Kuhn and van Fraassen do not differ as much as might be thought as regards the claim that observation is theory laden. IS - 4 JF - Philosophy of Science EP - 719 TI - Kuhn, Nominalism, and Empiricism VL - 70 SP - 690 KW - knowledge KW - philosophy KW - philosophy-science AU - Bird, Alexander PY - 2003/10/01/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/378860 ER -