The Hermeneutics Dimensionality Of Kuhn's Paradigm

In 1940s—1960s, in Hesperian developed nations, science connected withsociety increasingly closely. The infiltration among subjects increasinglyincreased and science research increasingly became socialization. Scientismwas oppugned and criticized, while irrationalism and pragmatism developed.On the base of absorbing the fruits up to date of science history, sciencephilosophy, psychology, sociology and other subjects, Tomas kuhn puttedforward his academic thought which reflected the development and demand ofthat era and arose deep resonance in whole field of humanities and socialscience. Tomas kuhn and his theory of dynamic development mode of sciencerevolution constantly arose controversy in academe. Some scholars criticizedthat he was an irrationalist and censured that his theory of dynamicdevelopment mode of science revolution was the view principle of scientificdevelopment of irrationalism and took on the obvious trend of irrationalism,relativism and representationalism.The first chapter of this thesis introduces the academic background andmajor contents of kuhn's academic thought. The most direct academicbackground for kuhn's paradigm theory are Hypothetism,logical empiricism,Popper's falsificationism. Besides them, sociology also played an importantrole in the forming of kuhn's paradigm theory. Paradigm and scientificcommunity are the important constituent parts of kuhn's academic thought andalso the foundation stones of his theory of dynamic development mode ofscience revolution. The original meaning of paradigm was the phraseologicaldeclension. Kuhn took advantage of it to denote the great scientificachievements including Exemplars and further denote a complete set ofregulations the members of a certain scientific community have in common. Italso refers to the common faith of scientific community which is based on acertain great scientific achievement recognized and coming into tradition andcan provide community members a concept frame for grasping objects ofstudy, a set of credos of theory and methodology, a exemplification of solvingproblem can be imitative of.It also sets the development direction and study approach of this subject in acertain period and in the same time determines a certain metaphysical faith andvalue criterion of community members which determines their nature view,world view and value view. On the base of paradigm and scientific community,kuhn putted forward his dynamic development mode of science revolution. Hethought that science revolution mainly experienced four stages: pre-sciencestage, normal science stage, crisis stage and revolution stage. Kuhn thoughtthat the basic content of revolution stage of science after crisis was abandoningold paradigm, setting new paradigm. Kuhn also putted forward the problem ofincommensurability. Kuhn thought that new paradigm and old paradigm werenot consistent and comparable because the difference of paradigm wasn't thedifference of degree of understanding the same world.The third chapter of this thesis discusses the criticisms at kuhn's paradigmtheory. First, we summarize the criticisms from D.Shapere,Popper,Lakatos,namely criticizing the tendency of irrationalism, relativism andrepresentationalism of kuhn's thought. Then, we introduce what isirrationalism and the characters of irrationalism. Finally, on the base ofintroducing the system of kuhn's theory, we point out that kuhn's academicthought falls short of the characters of irrationalism, namely anti-objectivity,anti-logicality and anti-rationality. Thus, kuhn's view principle of sciencedevelopment isn't irrationalistic and kuhn isn't a irrationalist too.The third chapter of this thesis discusses the development of kuhn'sacademic thought. The concept of paradigm experienced philology turnaroundand hermeneutic turnaround successively. In the later stage, he calledparadigm disciplinary matrix in order to get over the illegibility of the conceptof paradigm. Putting forward taxonomy and glossary showed the transition ofkuhn's visual angle of study: from the angle of sociology, psychology andhistory to the angle of taxonomy and glossology of glossary. Kuhn alsostudied the problem of incommensurability and thought he has found thereason why the incommensurability between the theories in succession onscience revolution existed. The reason is: because of the matter of taxonomy,the appellation and usage of words are different in different theories and thismakes the holder of subsequent theories can't interpret the theories beforerevolution with their own glossary.This is also just the sign of science revolution happening. The secondapproach for unscrambling himself kuhn found was turning to construct thedevelopment mode of science knowledge. This kind of constitution is usuallyadvanced in the compare with two approaches. One is comparing with themode of lexical flux and another is comparing with the evolution theory of acertain form.In his later years, he affirmed the concept of paradigm. But this didn't meanthat he simply reverted to the opinion in1962. He treated as the basis ofhermeneutic.The forth chapter of this thesis discusses the contribution of kuhn'sacademic thought. Kuhn's hermeneutic turnaround has wondrously importantmeaning for the development of Hesperian science philosophy. The mainembodiment is that kuhn's academic thought enlightens and leads Hesperianscience philosophy to turn to Neo-experimentalism. The reason why we say inthis wise is science philosophy of new age all have the background of kuhn'stheory and question and kuhn directly led them to the hermeneuticdimensionality. Hesperian science philosophy stepped into a new development...