Kuhn's ontological relativism
Howard Sankey · 2018
This chapter aims to provide document Thomas S. Kuhn&s;s move away from conceptual relativism and rationality relativism, and analysis of his later tendency toward an ontological form of relativism. It discusses the Kuhn&s;s shift away from a relativistic stance about rationality and conceptual schemes. The chapter analyses the matters of ontology by considering Kuhn&s;s earlier idealist sounding talk of world change and his later idea of changes in the taxonomic categories which theories impose on the world. The key relativist tendency in Kuhn&s;s position detected by the critics’ centers upon the combination of the claim of paradigm dependent evaluative criteria with the denial of higher order criteria. The relativist tendency of Kuhn&s;s original position is so pronounced that some of those sympathetic to Kuhn have attempted to defend him by presenting a more defensible version of relativism. However, a version of conceptual relativism appropriate to Kuhn&s;s model requires a close connection between paradigms and the conceptual apparatus which they employ.