<p>This essay describes the philosophy of science that Thomas Kuhn puts forth in his work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. The question is, does his description of the scientific paradigm work as well today as in the examples he gave in the book?</p><p>The conclusion is that there are certain factors that make for a number of differences between science today and, for example in the seventeenth century. There is also a growing theory or vision of a post normal science laid developed by among others Jerome Ravetz. This theory or vision is an idea of a science close to peer-communities and fast as well as critical decisions involving opposite values.</p>

This essay describes the philosophy of science that Thomas Kuhn puts forth in his work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. The question is, does his description of the scientific paradigm work as well today as in the examples he gave in the book? The conclusion is that there are certain factors that make for a number of differences between science today and, for example in the seventeenth century. There is also a growing theory or vision of a post normal science laid developed by among others Jerome Ravetz. This theory or vision is an idea of a science close to peer-communities and fast as well as critical decisions involving opposite values.

Este trabalho relata a aplicação de uma proposta didática para introduzir a Física no Ensino Fundamental através do estudo do movimento de queda dos corpos. Este fenômeno foi tratado através de três distintas teorias (Aristóteles, Física Clássica e Einstein) tomadas como sucessivos paradigmas na História da Física, o que possibilitou a discussão explícita também de aspectos epistemológicos. A proposta foi aplicada duas vezes, nos anos de 2014 e 2015, com alunos do Ensino Fundamental em formato de oficina, no turno inverso ao das aulas regulares, no colégio João Paulo I – Higienópolis, em Porto Alegre, RS. O planejamento das atividades baseou-se na teoria da aprendizagem significativa de David Ausubel e a atividade científica foi interpretada de acordo com a visão de ciência de Thomas Kuhn (foram debatidos conceitos como paradigma, revolução científica, ciência normal e incomensurabilidade paradigmática). Ao longo da oficina foram introduzidas, de forma qualitativa, a visão aristotélica, a Teoria Clássica e a Teoria da Relatividade Geral como sendo distintas explicações para o movimento de queda dos corpos. A proposta mostrou-se uma boa alternativa para o ensino de Física de uma maneira diferenciada, conseguindo alcançar alguns conceitos de Física Moderna e Contemporânea com resultados exitosos em ambas as aplicações, no sentido de tornar o primeiro contato dos jovens com a Física uma experiência interessante. Além disso, a proposta tornou possível proporcionar aos alunos uma noção menos ingênua e mais crítica sobre a atividade científica, mostrando a Física como uma ciência viva. No final deste trabalho (Apêndice J), há um produto educacional que mostra a sequência didática, contendo textos e atividades, como sugestão ao professor de Física desse nível de ensino. / This work describes the application of a didactic proposal to introduce physics in elementary education through the study of the motion falling bodies. This phenomenon was treated by the study of three different theories (Aristotle´s, Classical Mechanics and Einstein´s) taken as successive paradigms in the history of physics, which also allowed the explicit discussion of epistemological aspects. The proposal was applied twice in the years of 2014 and 2015, with elementary school students in a workshop format in the opposite shift of the regular classes in the school João Paulo I - Higienópolis, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. The planning of activities was grounded in the meaningful learning theory of David Ausubel and scientific activity was interpreted according to Thomas Kuhn vision of science (concepts such as a paradigm, scientific revolution, normal science and paradigm incommensurability were discussed). During the workshop the Aristotelian view, the classical theory and the General Theory of Relativity were introduced, qualitatively, as distinct explanations for falling bodies’ movement. The proposal proved to be a good alternative to teach physics in a different way, managing to teach some concepts of Modern and Contemporary Physics with promising results in both applications, allowing the first contact of young people with Physics to become an interesting experience. In addition, the proposal proved to be a possible way to provide students a less naive and more critical notion of the scientific activity, showing physics as a science that is continuously evolving. At the end of this study (Appendix J), there is an educational product that shows the didactic sequence used, containing texts and activities, as a suggestion to physics teacher at this level of education.

Este trabalho relata a aplicação de uma proposta didática para introduzir a Física no Ensino Fundamental através do estudo do movimento de queda dos corpos. Este fenômeno foi tratado através de três distintas teorias (Aristóteles, Física Clássica e Einstein) tomadas como sucessivos paradigmas na História da Física, o que possibilitou a discussão explícita também de aspectos epistemológicos. A proposta foi aplicada duas vezes, nos anos de 2014 e 2015, com alunos do Ensino Fundamental em formato de oficina, no turno inverso ao das aulas regulares, no colégio João Paulo I – Higienópolis, em Porto Alegre, RS. O planejamento das atividades baseou-se na teoria da aprendizagem significativa de David Ausubel e a atividade científica foi interpretada de acordo com a visão de ciência de Thomas Kuhn (foram debatidos conceitos como paradigma, revolução científica, ciência normal e incomensurabilidade paradigmática). Ao longo da oficina foram introduzidas, de forma qualitativa, a visão aristotélica, a Teoria Clássica e a Teoria da Relatividade Geral como sendo distintas explicações para o movimento de queda dos corpos. A proposta mostrou-se uma boa alternativa para o ensino de Física de uma maneira diferenciada, conseguindo alcançar alguns conceitos de Física Moderna e Contemporânea com resultados exitosos em ambas as aplicações, no sentido de tornar o primeiro contato dos jovens com a Física uma experiência interessante. Além disso, a proposta tornou possível proporcionar aos alunos uma noção menos ingênua e mais crítica sobre a atividade científica, mostrando a Física como uma ciência viva. No final deste trabalho (Apêndice J), há um produto educacional que mostra a sequência didática, contendo textos e atividades, como sugestão ao professor de Física desse nível de ensino. / This work describes the application of a didactic proposal to introduce physics in elementary education through the study of the motion falling bodies. This phenomenon was treated by the study of three different theories (Aristotle´s, Classical Mechanics and Einstein´s) taken as successive paradigms in the history of physics, which also allowed the explicit discussion of epistemological aspects. The proposal was applied twice in the years of 2014 and 2015, with elementary school students in a workshop format in the opposite shift of the regular classes in the school João Paulo I - Higienópolis, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. The planning of activities was grounded in the meaningful learning theory of David Ausubel and scientific activity was interpreted according to Thomas Kuhn vision of science (concepts such as a paradigm, scientific revolution, normal science and paradigm incommensurability were discussed). During the workshop the Aristotelian view, the classical theory and the General Theory of Relativity were introduced, qualitatively, as distinct explanations for falling bodies’ movement. The proposal proved to be a good alternative to teach physics in a different way, managing to teach some concepts of Modern and Contemporary Physics with promising results in both applications, allowing the first contact of young people with Physics to become an interesting experience. In addition, the proposal proved to be a possible way to provide students a less naive and more critical notion of the scientific activity, showing physics as a science that is continuously evolving. At the end of this study (Appendix J), there is an educational product that shows the didactic sequence used, containing texts and activities, as a suggestion to physics teacher at this level of education.

This dissertation is original in using the contrasting ideas of two leading 20th century philosophers of science, Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn, to provide a philosophical understanding, firstly, of the shift from traditional software methodologies to the so-called Agile methodologies, and, secondly, of the values, principles and practices underlying the most prominent of the Agile methodologies, Extreme Programming (XP). This dissertation will take a revisionist approach, following Fuller—the founder of social epistemology—in reading Popper against Kuhn's epistemological hegemony. The investigations in this dissertation relate to two main branches of philosophy— epistemology and ethics. The epistemological part of this dissertation compares both Kuhn and Popper's alternative ideas of the development of scientific knowledge to the Agile methodologists' ideas of the development of software, in order to assess the extent to which Agile software development resembles a scientific discipline. The investigations relating to ethics in this dissertation transfer concepts from social engineering—in particular, Popper's distinction between piecemeal and utopian social engineering—to software engineering, in order to assess both the democratic and authoritarian aspects of Agile software development and management. The use of Kuhn's ideas of scientific revolutions and paradigm shift by several leading figures of the Agile software methodologies—most notably, Kent Beck, the leader of the most prominent Agile software methodology, Extreme Programming (XP)—to predict a fundamental shift from traditional to Agile software methodologies, is critically assessed in this dissertation. A systematic investigation into whether Kuhn's theory as a whole, can provide an adequate account of the day-to-day practice of Agile software development is also provided. As an alternative to the use of Kuhn's ideas, the critical rationalist philosophy of Karl Popper is investigated. On the one hand, this dissertation assesses whether the epistemological aspects of Popper's philosophy—especially his notions of falsificationism, evolutionary epistemology, and three worlds metaphysics—provide a suitable framework for understanding the philosophical basis of everyday Agile software development. On the other hand, the aspects of Popper's philosophy relating to ethics, which provide an ideal for scientific practice in an open society, are investigated in order to determine whether they coincide with the avowedly democratic values of Agile software methodologies. The investigations in this dissertation led to the following conclusions. Firstly, Kuhn's ideas are useful in predicting the effects of the full-scale adoption of Agile methodologies, and they describe the way in which several leaders of the Agile methodologies promote their methodologies; they do not, however, account for the detailed methodological practice of Agile software development. Secondly, several aspects of Popper's philosophy, were found to be aligned with several aspects of Agile software development. In relation to epistemology, Popper's principle of falsificationism provides a criterion for understanding the rational and scientific basis of several Agile principles and practices, his evolutionary epistemology resembles the iterative-incremental design approach of Agile methodologies, and his three worlds metaphysical model provides an understanding of both the nature of software, and the approach advocated by the Agile methodologists' of creating and sharing knowledge. In relation to ethics, Popper's notion of an open society provides an understanding of the rational and ethical basis of the values underlying Agile software development and management, as well as the piecemeal adoption of Agile software methodologies. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Computer Science / unrestricted

Numerous studies have attempted to measure scientists' influence by measuring the quantity of citations to their works. The problem with "citation counting," as it is called, is that it assumes that each listing of an author in a citation index is equal to another without bothering to explore the substantive uses of citations in the source article. The present study attempts to alleviate this problem by content analysis of citations in a limited sphere: reference to major philosophers of science by sociologists. In just over 100 sociology journals, citations to Thomas Kuhn, Karl Popper, Ernst Nagel, and Carl Hempel (overall, the most frequently cited philosophers of science) from 1971-1982 were randomly sampled. Each citation was classified according to the following criteria: 1) philosopher cited; 2) work cited, 3) exclusivity (whether cited with others); 4) multiplicity (number of citations by the philosopher in the same article); 5) type of article; and 6) purpose of citation. Purposes of citation included seven categories: 1) listing as relevant literature; 2) definition of a concept; 3) modification or extension of a philosopher's theory; 4) formulation of a research problem; 5) interpretation of results; 6) critical of philosopher's work; and 7) other. Analysis of these data revealed the following conclusions: 1) the major use of philosophy was the furnishing of concepts and their definitions; 2) philosophy of science played little or no role in directing research or interpreting results; 3) the use of citations differed greatly among the philosophers; 4) simple citation counting would have severely distorted the relative influences of each philosopher; and 5) the dialogue between sociology and the philosophy of science has, in the last decade, been dominated by Kuhn's theory of scientific revolutions.

The thesis analyses a dispute of two anarchist movements promoting Anarcho-Capitalism and an automated non-monetary economy. It asks the question whether the dispute can be explained in terms of paradigm conflict and not exclusively in political terms . The goal is to search for signs of scientific paradigm in an apparently ideological dispute. The thesis also examines the reasons why did the debate deteriorate into a personal and moral conflict of the representatives. The method of analysis is Grounded Theory, with reference to authors who interpret Kuhn's paradigm conflict as the consequence of an unconscious language barrier. Paradigm was operationally defined as a hierarchy of concepts with physical reference, theoretical network of the concepts and the scientific field objectives. The field objectives are the only reliable reference points between paradigms. The thesis sums up the debate between Anarcho-Capitalists and proponents of Resource-Based Economy and recovers the scientific answers and field objectives which were demanded yet missing in the debate. The thesis concludes that the debate can legitimately continue and that the ideological differences were mostly caused by a different scope of technical instruments and their describing paradigms, regardless of historical origin and...

The aim of this thesis is to arrive at a characterisation of twentieth century poetry and science by means of a detailed study of the work of four poets who engaged extensively with science and whose writing lives spanned the greater part of the period. The study of science in the work of the four chosen poets, Hugh MacDiarmid (1892 – 1978), Judith Wright (1915 – 2000), Edwin Morgan (1920 – 2010), and Miroslav Holub (1923 – 1998), is preceded by a literature survey and an initial theoretical chapter. This initial part of the thesis outlines the interdisciplinary history of the academic subject of poetry and science, addressing, amongst other things, the challenges presented by the episodes known as the ‘two cultures' and the ‘science wars'. Seeking to offer a perspective on poetry and science more aligned to scientific materialism than is typical in the interdiscipline, a systemic challenge to Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) is put forward in the first chapter. Additionally, the founding work of poetry and science, I. A. Richards's Science and Poetry (1926), is assessed both in the context in which it was written, and from a contemporary viewpoint; and, as one way to understand science in poetry, a theory of the creative misreading of science is developed, loosely based on Harold Bloom's The Anxiety of Influence (1973). The detailed study of science in poetry commences in Chapter II with Hugh MacDiarmid's late work in English, dating from his period on the Shetland Island of Whalsay (1933 – 1941). The thesis in this chapter is that this work can be seen as a radical integration of poetry and science; this concept is considered in a variety of ways including through a computational model, originally suggested by Robert Crawford. The Australian poet Judith Wright, the subject of Chapter III, is less well known to poetry and science, but a detailed engagement with physics can be identified, including her use of four-dimensional imagery, which has considerable support from background evidence. Biology in her poetry is also studied in the light of recent work by John Holmes. In Chapter IV, science in the poetry of Edwin Morgan is discussed in terms of its origin and development, from the perspective of the mythologised science in his science fiction poetry, and from the ‘hard' technological perspective of his computer poems. Morgan's work is cast in relief by readings which are against the grain of some but not all of his published comments. The thesis rounds on its theme of materialism with the fifth and final chapter which studies the work of Miroslav Holub, a poet and practising scientist in communist-era Prague. Holub's work, it is argued, represents a rare and important literary expression of scientific materialism. The focus on materialism in the thesis is not mechanistic, nor exclusive of the domain of the imagination; instead it frames the contrast between the original science and the transformed poetic version. The thesis is drawn together in a short conclusion.

The chronology of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Near East is currently a topic of intense scholarly debate. The conventional/orthodox chronology for this period has been assembled over the past one-two centuries using information from King-lists, royal annals and administrative documents, primarily those from the Great Kingdoms of Egypt, Assyria and Babylonia. This major enterprise has resulted in what can best be described as an extremely complex but little understood jigsaw puzzle composed of a multiplicity of loosely connected data. I argue in my thesis that this conventional chronology is fundamentally wrong, and that Egyptian New Kingdom (Memphite) dates should be lowered by 200 years to match historical actuality. This chronological adjustment is achieved in two stages: first, the removal of precisely 85 years of absolute Assyrian chronology from between the reigns of Shalmaneser II and Ashur-dan II; and second, the downward displacement of Egyptian Memphite dates relative to LBA Assyrian chronology by a further 115 years. Moreover, I rely upon Kuhnian epistemology to structure this alternate chronology so as to make it methodologically superior to the conventional chronology in terms of historical accuracy, precision, consistency and testability.