development wave-particle philosophical discontinuity

books:

The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change

6 reviews
Thomas S. Kuhn

University Of Chicago Press, 1979

Another beautiful mind
Kuhn's ideas are almost always insightful, sometimes brilliant, though he can be challenging and somewhat dense to read. The last point is an observation rather than a criticism. Unlike some academic writers who use a lot of jargon and unnecessarily big words to sound authoritative, Kuhn is "scholarly" in the best sense -- meticulous about detail and extremely thoughtful in his explanations. ...

The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought

12 reviews
Thomas S. Kuhn

Harvard University Press, 1992

Outstanding Elucidation
This book, written before his Structures, is condensed, well written and, for me at any rate, highly entertaining. No one with a casual understanding of the history of astronomy can read this and not be surprised. Of special interest is the illumination of the fact that at the time Copernicus offered his Helio-centric cosmology there was no good, scientific reason for accepting it - it being a ...

The Road since Structure: Philosophical Essays, 1970-1993, with an Autobiographical Interview

5 reviews
Thomas S. Kuhn

University Of Chicago Press, 2002

What made Kuhn tick, and more
There are three parts to this book: essays Kuhn wrote to respond to the most substantial criticisms of THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS, essays that extend and elaborate on his thinking since STRUCTURE, and, most remarkable, a very long and revealing interview or discussion with three Greek philosophers of science less than a year before his death. To me, the interview is the most ...

Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact

4 reviews
Ludwik Fleck

University Of Chicago Press, 1981

Scientific facts: constructed, not discovered?
If you thought scientific knowledge was clear, objective, and unbiased, but fortunately became enlightened by your readings of Kuhn, think again!! Rediscovered by Kuhn himself, Fleck exposes in a brief, very-well illustrated monogrpah, how facts -such as the apparently objective Wassermann reaction for syphilis- are constructed, not passively discovered. From medieval magic to modern medicine, ...

Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity, 1894-1912

3 reviews
Thomas S. Kuhn

University Of Chicago Press, 1987

How the Quantum came to be
Excellent book, as Kuhn's usually are, on the origin of quantum theory. "Everyone" knows Planck arrived at the quantum by studying black-body radiation, but what you are never told is *why* he was doing that! Kuhn reaches back as to why Planck was, and has an interesting story to tell for it (the question of thermodynamic irreversability vs reversability in classical mechanics). Another major ...

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

116 reviews
Thomas S. Kuhn

University Of Chicago Press, 1996

Not Just for Those Interested in Science
Essential reading in understanding why the Enlightenment ideal of rationality is dead or at least doesn't count in ways that matter. In particular, Kuhn calls into question the idea of science as a rational enterprise, and since science is epistemologically privileged and thought to be the essence of rationality, to call into question the rationality of science is to call into question ...

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: A Reader's Guide (Reader's Guides)
John Preston, Thomas S. Kuhn

Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008

Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is arguably one of the most influential books of the twentieth century and a key text in the philosophy and history of science. Kuhn transformed the philosophy and history of science in the twentieth century in an irrevocable way and still provides an important alternative to formalist approaches in the philosophy of science. In Kuhn's `The Structure of Scientific Revolutions': A ...

The Tiger and the Shark: Empirical Roots of Wave-Particle Dualism
Bruce R. Wheaton

Cambridge University Press, 1991

The early twentieth century brought about the rejection by physicists of the doctrine of determinism - the belief that complete knowledge of the initial conditions of an interaction in nature allows precise and unambiguous prediction of the outcome. This book traces the origins of a central problem leading to this change in viewpoint and paradoxes raised by attempts to formulate a consistent theory of the nature of light. It outlines the ...