Conceptual Development and Dynamic Realism

• Main Author: Hanne Andersen
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: University of Tartu 2012-12-01
• Series: Studia Philosophica Estonica
• Subjects: Kuhn; scientic concepts; family resemblance; conceptual change; taxonomies; categorization
• Online Access: http://www.spe.ut.ee/ojs-2.2.2/index.php/spe/article/view/107/78

This paper focuses on Thomas S. Kuhn's work on taxonomic concepts and how it relates to empirical work from the cognitive sciences on categorization and conceptual development. I shall first review the basic features of Kuhn's family resemblance account and compare to work from the cognitive sciences. I shall then show how Kuhn's account can be extended to cover the development of new taxonomies in science, and I shall illustrate by a detailed case study that Kuhn himself mentioned only briefly in his own work, namely the discovery of X-rays and radioactivity.