Synopsis

Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was published in 1962 and has become one of the most important works of the twentieth century. During the last twenty years of his life, Kuhn was radically rethinking the central concepts of Structure. When he died in 1996, he left an unfinished sequel to Structure and an assortment of essays written since 1977 that lay the conceptual groundwork for some of the unfinished portions of that sequel.

Divided into three parts, The Road Since Structure is the fullest record we have at present of the new direction Kuhn was taking during the last two decades of his life. The first part of the book consists of essays in which Kuhn refines the basic concepts set forth in Structure—paradigm shifts, incommensurability, and the nature of scientific progress. In part II, Kuhn replies to many of the criticisms of his earlier work. And the third part of the volume is the transcript of a remarkable autobiographical interview with Kuhn conducted in Athens in 1995, not quite a year before his death. Here, the usually reticent Kuhn discusses his own intellectual development—his upbringing and thoughts about his education, the influence of his training as a physicist, his war work, his relations with his colleagues, the responses to Structure—and his struggles to define his philosophical position both before and after that landmark work.

The Road Since Structure will intrigue everyone who has been engaged by Structure and the debates it launched. In it they will find the story not only of Kuhn's development but also of the man himself.

Library Journal

Kuhn's title refers to his 1962 work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which has become the most influential work of the last 50 years in the history and philosophy of science. The essays here have appeared in various edited works, journals, symposia, and conference proceedings, but now they are conveniently available in one volume. The essays fall into three groups, each arranged chronologically. The first shows the development of Kuhn's thought from 1980 through 1990, the second consists of his responses to criticisms of other philosophers, the last is a candid, highly interesting and informative interview Kuhn did a year before his death. Before he died in 1996, Kuhn asked his editors to omit material from a book he had been working on, which will be presented as a separate work-in-progress that is now being prepared for publication. Kuhn's work is central to the question of the relation of science and culture, but because of the technical nature of this issue, his new book will find its most appropriate place in academic collections.--Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Management Lib., Washington, DC Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Biography

James Conant, a professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago, is the editor of two books, including Hilary Putnam: Words and Life.

John Haugeland is a professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago, the author of two books, Having Thought and Artificial Intelligence, the Very Idea, and editor of two books, Mind Design and Mind Design II.