Inception Dialogues 5: Science journalist and author John Horgan

In this episode I talk to science journalist and author John Horgan about the revolutionary philosophy of Thomas Kuhn, perhaps the greatest philosopher of science of the 20th century. Kuhn has introduced the concept of a 'paradigm' in science and shown that the positivist view of scientific development as steady progress towards the ultimate truth is fallacious. Science, according to Kuhn, is driven not only by empirical evidence but also by psychological, social, and political factors. And even the interpretation of the empirical evidence is not neutral, but laden with the assumptions, values, and beliefs entailed by a paradigm. John has had the unique opportunity to sit together with Kuhn several years ago and discuss his ideas with the man himself. He shares his views of Kuhn with me and we then engage in a lively debate about our respective views of the significance, accuracy, and implications of Kuhn's revolutionary philosophy.

For more information, go to:
http://www.inceptiondialogues.com/201...

Guest links:
Scientific American article discussed in this episode: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/c...
Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hor...)
Website: http://www.johnhorgan.org/
Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/John-Horgan/e/B...

Background animation "Universe, Space, Fantasy" copyright by 1one1. Licensed from clipcanvas.com.

Background music "Easy Lemon" and "Light Awash" copyright by Kevin MacLeod. Licensed from incompetech.com under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

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• #paradigm
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