File spoon-archives/marxism2.archive/marxism2_1996/96-07-10.220, message 160


From: Zeynep Tufekcioglu <zeynept-AT-turk.net>
Subject: Re: Thomas Kuhn                                   
Date: Sat, 22 Jun 1996 20:00:56 +0300


>Rahul Writes: "If I explain them to any of you, how
>will you be able to tell who's right? I'm not talking merely about
>idiosyncratic opinions of mine, but about generally understood matters, but
>none of you are aware of that general understanding."
>
>It's so nice that Rahul holds us in so high regard.  I feel sorry for his 
>students.

A good physicst could convince us, with equal ease, that Kuhn was right and
Kuhn was wrong in his physics. We wouldn't be able to judge. 

There are fields of knowledge in which all we can hope for is to judge the
arguments from the methodology of the author in other subjects that we
understand better. In terms of Kuhn, we can easily do this. The physics
argument is not the core of his, imo mistaken, argument. We can live without
completely comprehending his physics.

It is a basic fact of life and the nature of knowledge to accept limitations
in specialty fields, and it is not an insult to simply say it outright.

Zeynep



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