Chapter 4 - Kuhn and Logical Positivism

Summary

Kuhn has been hailed as one of the main critics of logical positivism since the publication of Structure of Scientific Revolutions. But the image of science he criticizes in the published version of the book is not considered sufficiently clear and has left room for doubt as to whether or not positivism, rarely directly cited, is a real target of this criticism. In the first manuscript of the work, written in 1958, the traditional image of science becomes clearer due to the contrast Kuhn makes between science and art. This chapter shows that the traditional image of science that Kuhn presents through the contrast with art in the first manuscript is the same as the one logical positivists present in the contrast with philosophy, particularly in the context of one of their most important and characteristic ideas, the proposal of a scientific philosophy. This allows a proper assessment of the share of responsibility of logical positivism in the construction of the traditional image of science Kuhn criticizes and, thus, a better understanding of Kuhn’s relationship with positivism.