Scientific

Rationality and
Theory Change
Thomas Kuhn's Theory of Rationality

University of the Philippines – Manila

SCHOOL OF HEALTH SCIENCES
Palo, Leyte
What is it for?

SCIENCE
Scientific
RATIONALITY
• Distinguishing mark of science
• Has been a – if not the – central topic of
philosophy of science.

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Scientific
RATIONALITY
• This includes issues such as the
demarcation of science from
pseudoscience, the rationality of theory
choice, or the role of aims of science
and their relation to changing
methodological ideas.

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Scientific
RATIONALITY
• In general, rationality requires
reasoning strategies that are effective
for accomplishing goals, so discussion
of the rationality of science must
consider what science is supposed to
accomplish.

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GOALS OF SCIENCE
• Epistemic Goals
• Practical Goals

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EPISTEMIC GOALS
• Include truth, explanation and
empirical adequacy.
• Primary epistemic aim of science is the
achievement of truth and the
avoidance of error (Goldman, 1999)

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EPISTEMIC GOALS
• The philosophical position of scientific
realism maintains that science aims for
true theories and to some extent
accomplishes this aim, producing some
theories that are at least approximately
true.

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EPISTEMIC GOALS
• In contrast, the position of anti-
realism is that truth is not a concern of
science.
• Bas van Fraassen (1980), who argues
that science aims only for empirical
adequacy: scientific theories should
make predictions about observable
phenomena, but should not be
constructed as true or false.
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PRACTICAL GOALS
• Include increasing human welfare
through technological advances

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KUHN'S THEORY
Rationality

• Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of

Scientific Revolutions (SSR)
generated a heated debate over
the importance of rationality to
science, since its publication in
1962.

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KUHN'S THEORY
Rationality

• Kuhn’s notion of rationality is

intertwined with his perspective on
the nature of science and scientific
behavior: the considerations used by
scientists in choosing theories, the
sources of divergence in opinion and
the possibility of rational
disagreement. 
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 FR

KUHN'S THEORY
Rationality

• Kuhn’s notion of rationality is

intertwined with his perspective on
the nature of science and scientific
behavior: the considerations used by
scientists in choosing theories, the
sources of divergence in opinion and
the possibility of rational
disagreement. 
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 FR

KUHN'S THEORY
Structure of Scienific
Revolutions
• Offered a general pattern of scientific
change.
• Inquiries in a given field start with a
clash of different perspectives.
Eventually one approach manages to
resolve some concrete issue, and
investigators concur in pursuing it—
they follow the “paradigm.”
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 FR

KUHN'S THEORY
Structure of Scienific
Revolutions
• Only when puzzles repeatedly prove
recalcitrant does the community
begin to develop a sense that
something may be amiss.
• The unsolved puzzles acquire a new
status, being seen as anomalies

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 FR

KUHN'S THEORY
Structure of Scienific
Revolutions
• Only when puzzles repeatedly prove
recalcitrant does the community
begin to develop a sense that
something may be amiss.
• The unsolved puzzles acquire a new
status, being seen as anomalies

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SALAMAT !
Group 2
208 555 0164
jcgatela@up.edu.ph
www.thevisibleuniverse.webs.com
REFERENCES
https://www.britannica.com/topic/philosophy-of-science/Scientific-change
http://cogsci.uwaterloo.ca/Articles/rationality.html
https://
www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-60452019000300001