Document Type : Research Paper

Author

• Saeed Tebbi Momtaz

Abstract

One of the most controversial topics in Thomas Kuhn’s philosophy of science is the concept of incommensurability; the concept he applied for comparison among successive theories. When he developed this concept, many critics challenged his view, so he decided to improve his theory. There fore, from the time of expressing this concept to the final version, we can find two positions in his view separated from one another by a transitional position. In his early position, the concept of incommensurability is related to the concept of paradigm and revolutionary transitions between them. As each paradigm has different methods and problem patterns, we cannot have compare or judge about them. Critics found such view irrational, because if there is no meta-paradigmatic criterion, how we can know that a theory is rational. By reforming his view in his transitional position, Kuhnseeks to relate incommensurability with indeterminacy of translation. However, but in spite of some problems he gives up on this position and presents the later version of his theory

Keywords

• incommensurability
• Paradigm
• local incommensurability
• indeterminacy
• structure of taxonomy