Kuhn's changing concept of incommensurability

Abstract

This chapter presents a study of the process of change which chronicles the key stages of the developments of Thomas Kuhn's concept of incommensurability. It focuses on the semantic and conceptual aspects of Kuhn's early account of incommensurability. Kuhn's notion of incommensurability involved semantic, observational and methodological differences between global theories or paradigms. Incommensurability figures integrally in Kuhn's account of revolutionary scientific change in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions According to Kuhn, scientific activity divides into periods of 'normal science' punctuated at intervals by episodes of 'revolution'. Revolutionary transition between paradigms is at the heart of Kuhn's account and is the point at which incommensurability enters. Reflection on translation led Kuhn to draw a connection between incommensurability and W. V. O. Quine's thesis of the indeterminacy of translation. A further source of unclarity is Kuhn's treatment of the relation between translation and comparison of content.

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