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- Title
Kuhn and the Parsonians: a critical comment on Alexander.
- Authors
Selby, John
- Abstract
Thomas Kuhn's book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" has generated a great deal of controversy in the philosophy of science, but its treatment in sociology has been rather different. Generally, Kuhn's analysis has been used as a framework to explain why social science is not like natural science with its developed "paradigms." Jeffrey C. Alexander's recent paper in this journal, "Paradigm revision and Parsonianism," follows a rather different strategy; it uses the development of thought among the followers and students of Talcott Parsons to argue that theoretical change, at least in social science, does not conform to Kuhn's model. Alexander's brief account of theory revision is very close indeed to the account which Kuhn gives of normal science and written in almost Kuhnian language. Alexander disagrees not with Kuhn's view of normal science but with a caricature of Kuhn's view of scientific revolutions extrapolated to all science. This critical comment will show that Alexander seriously distorts Kuhn's views both of the development of natural scientific theories and of the applicability of the natural science model to social science.
- Subjects
PHILOSOPHY &; science; SOCIAL sciences; PARADIGMS (Social sciences); SOCIOLOGY; KUHN, Thomas S., 1922-1996; ALEXANDER, Jeffrey C.
- Publication
Canadian Journal of Sociology, 1982, Vol 7, Issue 1, p61
- ISSN
0318-6431
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/3340548