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7 - Kuhn on Translation

from Part III - Incommensurability, Progress, and Revolutions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2024

K. Brad Wray
Affiliation:
Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
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Summary

This chapter offers a reading of a metaphor developed by Kuhn in the late 1960s and 1970s, most famously articulated in the Postscript to the second edition of Structure: to work through a revolutionary rupture, scientists on either side of the divide recognize each other as belonging to different language communities, and work to become translators. This chapter argues that not only has this metaphor been misunderstood, but its potential significance both for a Kuhnian view of scientific change and for the account of scientific communication that comes with it has been neglected. The process of becoming a translator poses challenges to the scientist commensurate with the duty of the translator not to transfer meaning, but to create it.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Kuhn on Translation
  • Edited by K. Brad Wray, Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
  • Book: Kuhn's <i>The Structure of Scientific Revolutions</i> at 60
  • Online publication: 05 January 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009122696.012
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  • Kuhn on Translation
  • Edited by K. Brad Wray, Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
  • Book: Kuhn's <i>The Structure of Scientific Revolutions</i> at 60
  • Online publication: 05 January 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009122696.012
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Kuhn on Translation
  • Edited by K. Brad Wray, Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
  • Book: Kuhn's <i>The Structure of Scientific Revolutions</i> at 60
  • Online publication: 05 January 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009122696.012
Available formats
×