The Last Writings of Thomas S. Kuhn: Incommensurability in Science

Thomas S. Kuhn’s seminal 1962 history The Structure of Scientific Revolutions gets a posthumous follow-up in this complex volume edited by Mladenovic (Kuhn’s Legacy), a philosophy professor at Williams College. Mladenovic explains that Kuhn was not happy with how the book was received, believing that “both his critics and would-be followers seriously misunderstood” it; he worked on a subsequent account titled The Plurality of Worlds: An Evolutionary Theory of Scientific Development for years, but died in 1996 before finishing. Mladenovic presents the five extant chapters of the book, along with a previously unpublished essay and a series of lectures Kuhn delivered at University College London. The “fundamental concept” of his second book centers on his idea of incommensurability, which suggests that “the difficulties of translating science are far more like those of translating literature than has generally been supposed.” And as Mladenovic writes, Kuhn believed that “in order to understand science, we must understand its history.” While Mladenovic provides a comprehensive and thoughtful introduction to the work, the technical, jargony nature of Kuhn’s text makes for difficult reading. Philosophy lovers who stay the course, though, will find plenty to chew on. (Dec.)