Philosophy of Science Essay
October/November 2010
Words (without quotes):
Essay Philosophy of Science
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
For the course: Philosophy of Science (30J205)
In the logical positivistic sense it is often mentioned that the field of economics is not scientific . Whenever one would try to refute this bold statement they often invoke the mentality of Thomas Kuhn. Although Kuhn passed away in 1996, his mentality is as contemporary as it was when it was first launched back in the nineties. Surely, his mentality had to withstand points of critique in the times to come, but as it turned out, his mentality proved to withstand this critique and be highly influential in the following decades. In this essay I will assess Thomas Kuhn’s philosophy of science and I will try to find an answer to the question: “To what extent does Kuhn’s view fit International Business Administration (IBA) as a systematic study of the economic world?”1. I will discuss Kuhn’s view in detail and illustrate the results with a clear economic case. We will discuss the ‘paradigm shift’ view and consequently apply it on the mentioned question above.
Thomas Samuel Kuhn made several important contributions to the understanding of the progress of knowledge. The most important and revolutionary at the time was his concept of the so called paradigm shifts. This view implied that there is no improvement in the gaining of knowledge, merely a shift in the perspective on reality (i.e. paradigm shift). It says that one always operates in a framework (paradigm) to approach any form of science. The paradigm shifts enable scientists to approach a given concept from an entire new perspective of which they could have never considered the validity before the paradigm shift. This view of Kuhn is so revolutionary because it does not deal with the demarcation criterion that proved to be an obstacle for philosophers prior to Kuhn. The demarcation problem in the philosophy of science is a problem in which it is
Words (without quotes):
Essay Philosophy of Science
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
For the course: Philosophy of Science (30J205)
In the logical positivistic sense it is often mentioned that the field of economics is not scientific . Whenever one would try to refute this bold statement they often invoke the mentality of Thomas Kuhn. Although Kuhn passed away in 1996, his mentality is as contemporary as it was when it was first launched back in the nineties. Surely, his mentality had to withstand points of critique in the times to come, but as it turned out, his mentality proved to withstand this critique and be highly influential in the following decades. In this essay I will assess Thomas Kuhn’s philosophy of science and I will try to find an answer to the question: “To what extent does Kuhn’s view fit International Business Administration (IBA) as a systematic study of the economic world?”1. I will discuss Kuhn’s view in detail and illustrate the results with a clear economic case. We will discuss the ‘paradigm shift’ view and consequently apply it on the mentioned question above.
Thomas Samuel Kuhn made several important contributions to the understanding of the progress of knowledge. The most important and revolutionary at the time was his concept of the so called paradigm shifts. This view implied that there is no improvement in the gaining of knowledge, merely a shift in the perspective on reality (i.e. paradigm shift). It says that one always operates in a framework (paradigm) to approach any form of science. The paradigm shifts enable scientists to approach a given concept from an entire new perspective of which they could have never considered the validity before the paradigm shift. This view of Kuhn is so revolutionary because it does not deal with the demarcation criterion that proved to be an obstacle for philosophers prior to Kuhn. The demarcation problem in the philosophy of science is a problem in which it is