Analysises On The Source Of Kuhn's Linguistic Turn

Thomas Samuel Kuhn is a famous scientific-pilosopher and scientific- historian in American,and is one of the most learned and influential Scholars too. In 1962, In his "Structure of Scientific Revolutions", he presents a dynamic pattern of scientific development which is very different from the traditional pattern: the former Science→normal science→crisises and abnormals→scientific revolution→new normal science. In his view, science is a process of both accumulation and revolution, "paradigm" change is a sign of revolution, they are incommensurable between "paradigms". In face of the criticisms of "relativism and irrationalism" come from the Anglo-American philosophers ,and under the influence of thinking of philosophers from Europe and America, he began his linguistic turn in the late 60's 20th century. Taking "language" as a tool, he tried to clarify the meaning of "paradigm" and explain"incommensurability"by the linguistic analysis, so that he can improve his theory and get agreement from the philosophers. In this paper,I reveal the source of Kuhn,s linguistic turn completelly from the external and internal factors.Firstly, this paper introduces Kuhn,s life,writings and ideas. In connection with his works, I introduce Kuhn,s ideas and grasp it,s developing process mainly from three stages: the "pre-Kuhn" ,"transition Kuhn", "post-Kuhn".Secondly, this paper introduces the background of Kuhn,s Linguistic Turn. At first,it introduces the Linguistic Turn of philosophy of science and the analytic philosophers, emphasis to the tools of language analysis, and then describes the reasons of the Linguistic Turn.Then, it introduces Kuhn,s linguistic turn and it,s characteristics.Thirdly, this paper analysises the external factors of Kuhn,s linguistic turn. One hand,it analysis the criticisms come from the Anglo-American philosophers, including the overall criticisms on "Structure of Scientific Revolutions", the criticisms on "paradigm" and "incommensurability". On the other hand,it analysises the influence to Kuhn from the euramerican philosophers, including Kant, Whorf, Quine.Fourthly, this paper reveals the internal factors of Kuhn,s linguistic turn. One hand ,it reveals that Kuhn,s linguistic turn is the result of the pefect and development of Kuhn,s theory itself.It reveals the shortcomings of Kuhn,s theory,and reveals the shortcomings, causes and nature, and it also reveals the Linguistics, perfect measures and process. On the other hand, it reveals that Kuhn,s linguistic turn is the result that Kuhn want to be agreed by the philosophers.It specifies that the linguistic turn is helpful to Kuhn to be agreed by philosophers.Finally, this paper points out the rationality and value of linguistic turn. Though,Kuhn's linguistic turn haven,t eliminate the misunderstandings come from philosophers completely, but Kuhn,s linguistic turn has its own rationality, it,ll have a great value for us to recognize Kuhn again from a linguistic view.