THE EXTRAEPISTEMOLOGICAL INFLUENCE OF KUHN’S STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS

Tekst počinje ocjenom Richarda Rortya da je Kuhnova Struktura znanstvenih revolucija uz Rawlsovu Teoriju pravednosti najvažnija filozofska knjiga napisana na engleskom jeziku u XX. stoljeću. Autor smatra da je takva ocjena primjerena, jer je nemoguće sjetiti se djela iz filozofije ili povijesti znanosti koje je dramatičnije uzburkalo i nadahnulo javnost kojoj i nije bilo izvorno namijenjeno. Premda je u svojem djelu Kuhn imao na umu filozofe i znanstvenike koji se bave prirodnim znanostima, to je djelo bilo izvorište velikih i plodnih rasprava u kojima su sudjelovali, ili koje nisu mogli previdjeti, antropolozi, sociolozi, kulturolozi, politolozi, filozofi morala, lingvisti, pravnici i mnogi drugi. Autor prikazuje neke od Kuhnovih epistemoloških ideja koje su neepistemolozi kreativno razradili, preradili i rekontekstualizirali. Tekst ima dva dijela. U prvome autor ukratko prikazuje ključne Kuhnove pojmove izložene u Strukturi znanstvenih revolucija (paradigma, normalna znanost, revolucija). U drugom dijelu prikazuje interpretaciju Kuhnove epistemologije Richarda Bernsteina. Autor se za to tumačenje odlučio zato je što je, po njegovu sudu, Bernstein, bolje nego ijedan drugi filozof, pokazao kako je upravo pojam nesumjerljivosti zaslužan za Kuhnov ogroman utjecaj i izvan okvira filozofije i povijesti znanosti. Autor zaključuje, zajedno s Bernsteinom, kako nesumjerljivost postaje provorazredna kategorija političkog mišljenja jer se njome pojmovno primjereno i analitički strogo ističe fenomen uzajamnog razumijevanja koji nadilazi imperativ odabira neke jedinstvene superiorne znanstvene teorije.The text begins with Richard Rorty’s assessment that Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions, along with Rawls’s A Theory of Justice, is the most important philosophical book written in the English language in the twentieth century. The author endorses this assessment, for it is impossible to think of a work in the fields of philosophy or scientific history which had such a dramatic agitating and inspiring impact on the public for which it was originally not intended. Namely, although Kuhn addressed in his work primarily philosophers and scientists engaged with natural sciences, the work was a source of major and fruitful discussion which involved, or could not be overseen by, anthropologists, sociologists, culturologists, political scientists, philosophers of morality, linguists, legal experts and many others. The author puts forward some of Kuhn’s epistemological ideas which were creatively elaborated, reworked and recontextualized by non-epistemologists. The text is divided in two parts. In the first part, the author briefly sketches Kuhn’s key concepts expounded in Structure… (paradigm, normal science, revolution). In the second part, he sets forth Richard Bernstein’s interpretation of Kuhn’s epistemology. The author opts for this interpretation because Bernstein, in his judgment, demonstrated better than any other philosopher that precisely the concept of incommensurability is to be given credit for Kuhn’s enormous influence even beyond the boundaries of philosophy and scientific history. Together with Bernstein, the author concludes that incommensurability becomes a first-rate category of political thought due to the fact that it stresses in a conceptually adequate and analytically rigorous fashion the phenomenon of mutual understanding which overrides the imperative of choosing some unique superior scientific theory