Incommensurability and Related Matters

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxxiv

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2. Incommensurability, Meaning and Reference

   1. Reference, (In)Commensurability and Meanings

      • Richard N. Boyd

      Pages 1-63

   2. Changing Laws and Shifting Concepts

      • Martin Carrier

      Pages 65-90

   3. Ramsification, Reference Fixing and Incommensurability

      • Fred Kroon, Robert Nola

      Pages 91-121

3. Realism and Incommensurability

   1. Incommensurability and Reality

      • Harold I. Brown

      Pages 123-142

   2. Incommensurability and the Priority of Metaphysics

      • Michael Devitt

      Pages 143-157

4. Incommensurability, Rationality and Relativism

   1. Incommensurability and the Normative Foundations of Scientific Knowledge

      • Gerald Doppelt

      Pages 159-179

   2. Reasons, Radical Change and Incommensurability in Science

      • Dudley Shapere

      Pages 181-206

5. Incommensurability, Multiculturalism and Science Education

   1. Incommensurability, Rationality and Relativism: In Science, Culture and Science Education

      • Harvey Siegel

      Pages 207-224

   2. Incommensurability and “Multicultural Science”

      • Hugh Lacey

      Pages 225-239

6. Incommensurability, Cognition and Conceptual Change

   1. Incommensurability and Conceptual Change during the Copernican Revolution

      • Peter Barker

      Pages 241-273

   2. Concept Formation and Commensurability

      • Nancy J. Nersessian

      Pages 275-301

7. Back Matter

   Pages 303-337

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Incommensurability and Related Matters draws together some of the most distinguished contributors to the critical literature on the problem of the incommensurability of scientific theories. It addresses all the various problems raised by the problem of incommensurability, such as meaning change, reference of theoretical terms, scientific realism and anti-realism, rationality of theory choice, cognitive aspects of conceptual change, as well as exploring the broader implications of incommensurability for cultural difference. While it offers new work, and new directions of discussion, on the topic of incommensurability, the book also recapitulates the history of the discussion of the topic that has taken place within the literature on incommensurability.

• education
• knowledge
• metaphysics
• reason
• relativism

• University of Hannover, Germany

  Paul Hoyningen-Huene

• University of Melbourne, Australia

  Howard Sankey

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