Abstract

COLETTO, R.. When "paradigms" differ: Scientific communication between skepticism and hope in recent philosophy of science. Koers (Online) [online]. 2008, vol.73, n.3, pp.445-467. ISSN 2304-8557.

The first half of this article illustrates how contemporary humanist philosophy of science got caught up in a gradual loss of confidence concerning the possibility of sound communication among scholars holding on to different paradigms or presuppositions. The second half is dedicated to the responses provided by a Christian school of philosophy to the bleak possibility of a communication crisis. The resources deployed by the reformational school of philosophy are argued to constitute valuable instruments to create a more hopeful attitude towards scientific dialogue. A final note is dedicated to the possible causes of the difficulties experienced in this area of reflection by contemporary humanist philosophy of science.

Keywords : antithesis, reformational view of; concepts and statements, theory-dependence of; framework-dependence of theories; incommensurability; scientific communication.

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