Comparative Study Of Kuhn's And Thagard's Theories Of Scientific Revolution

Many philosophers of science all propounded individually characteristic theories of scientific revolution.Kuhn's theory of scientific revolution is the important symbol of hermeneutic turning of philosophy of science in the 20th century. Thagard's theory of scientific revolution is the outstanding example of cognitive turning of philosophy of science.There is definitely theoretic value for understanding the processes of development of philosophy of science and exploring the orientation of development of philosophy of science by the comparative study of Kuhn's and Thagard's theories of scientific revolution.Firstly,the paper presents the essentials of Kuhn's theory of scientific revolution by regarding his pattern of scientific development as a central line and analyzes Thagard's theory of scientific revolution from three aspects,namely,the theory of conceptual change, model of ECHO theory evaluation based on TEC and the classifications of relation of successive theories.Secondly,there are annotation and comparison between the principal points of Kuhn's and Thagard's theories of scientific revolution by the case of chemical revolution,which is interpreted in three phases,that is,the course of development of phlogiston theory, origin and the development of pneumatic chemistry and the foundation of Lavoisier's oxygen theory. The principal points of Kuhn's theory of scientific revolution are interpreted from two aspects,which are the replacement of phlogiston theory paradigm by oxygen theory paradigm and the comparison,selection and evaluation between phlogiston theory and oxygen theory.The essentials of Thagard's theory of scientific revolution are annotated from four aspects which are structural analysis of conceptual change of chemical revolution,mechanisms of conceptual change,comparison of explanatory coherence between phlogiston theory and oxygen theory and the relation between phlogiston theory and oxygen theory. The paper identify commonalities or differences between Kuhn's and Thagard's theories of...