Opening the Door to Cloud-Cuckoo-Land: Hempel and Kuhn on Rationality

A reading is offered of Carl Hempel’s and Thomas Kuhn’s positions on, and disagreements about, rationality in science that relates these issues to the debate between W.V. Quine and Rudolf Carnap on the analytic/synthetic distinction. References Kelly Becker. Kuhn’s vindication of Quine and Carnap. History of Philosophy Quarterly, 19(2):217–35, 2002. Rudolf Carnap. Logical Foundations of Probability. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1950. Rudolf Carnap. Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology. In Meaning and Necessity, pages 205–21. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1956. Rudolf Carnap. Ernest Nagel on Induction. In P. A. Schlipp, editor, The Philosophy of Rudolf Carnap, pages 989–995. Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1963a. Rudolf Carnap. W. V. Quine on Logical Truth. In The Philosophy of Rudolf Carnap, pages 915–22. Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1963b. Gottlob Frege. The Foundations of Arithmetic. Northwestern University Press, 1959. Alexander George. On Washing the Fur Without Wetting It: Quine, Carnap, and Analyticity. Mind, pages 1–24, 2000. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mind/109.433.1 Alexander George. Quine’s Legacy. American Philosophical Quarterly, 28(3):301–4, 2011. Carl Hempel. Le Probleme de la V`erit´e Theoria, 3:206–46, 1937. Carl Hempel. Studies in the Logic of Conﬁrmation. In Aspects of Scientiﬁc Explanation, pages 1–46. The Free Press, 1965a. Carl Hempel. The Theoretician’s Dilemma: A Study in the Logic of Theory Construction. In Aspects of Scientiﬁc Explanation, pages 173–226. The Free Press, 1965b. Carl Hempel. Scientiﬁc Rationality: Analytic vs. Pragmatic Perspectives. In Robert Hollinger and A. David Kline, editors, Introductory Readings in the Philosophy of Science, pages 292–304. Prometheus Books, 1988. Carl Hempel. On the Cognitive Status and the Rationale of Scientiﬁc Methodology. In Richard Jeffrey, editor, Carl Hempel: Selected Philosophical Essays, pages 199–228. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000a. Carl Hempel. The Problem of Truth. In Carl Hempel: Selected Philosophical Essays, pages 35–74. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000b. Carl Hempel. Turns in the Evolution of the Problem of Induction. In James H. Fetzer, editor, The Philosophy of Carl G. Hempel: Studies in Science, Explanation, and Rationality, pages 344–356. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001a. Carl Hempel. Valuation and Objectivity in Science. In James H. Fetzer, editor, The Philosophy of Carl G. Hempel: Studies in Science, Explanation, and Rationality, pages 372–95. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001b. Thomas Kuhn. Reﬂections on My Critics. In Imre Lakatos and Alan Musgrave, editors, Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, pages 231–278. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1970a. Thomas Kuhn. The Structure of Scientiﬁc Revolutions. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2nd, enlarged edition, 1970b. Thomas Kuhn. The Essential Tension. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1977a. Thomas Kuhn. Second Thoughts on Paradigms. In The Essential Tension, pages 293–319. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1977b. Thomas Kuhn. Objectivity, Value Judgment, and Theory Choice. In Robert Hollinger and A. David Kline, editors, Introductory Readings in the Philosophy of Science, pages 277–291. Prometheus Books, 1988. Thomas Kuhn. Afterwords. In Paul Horwich, editor, World Changes: Thomas Kuhn and the Nature of Science, pages 311–341. M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, MA, 1993. Karl Popper. The Logic of Scientiﬁc Discovery. Hutchinson, 1959. Karl Popper. Objective Knowledge. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1979. W. V. Quine. Epistemology Naturalized. In Ontological Relativity and Other Essays, pages 69–90. Columbia University Press, New York, 1969. W. V. Quine. Mr. Strawson on Logical Theory. In The Ways of Paradox and Other Essays, pages 137–57. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1976a. W. V. Quine. Posits and Reality. In The Ways of Paradox and Other Essays, pages 246–254. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1976b. Hans Reichenbach. Experience and Prediction. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1957. George A. Reisch. Did Kuhn Kill Logical Empiricism? Philosophy of Science, 58:264–277, 1991. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/289615 Wesley C. Salmon. The Spirit of Logical Empiricism: Carl G. Hempel’s Role in Twentieth Century Philosophy of Science. Philosophy of Science, 66:333–50, 1999. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/392691 Israel Schefﬂer. Science and Subjectivity. Bobbs-Merrill, 1967. Amethe Smeaton, editor. The Logical Syntax of Language. London, 1937.