The reception of Kuhn’s work in analytic philosophy

Vasso Kindi (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)

The presentation is based on my paper "Kuhn and Philosophy" (in Y. Shan (ed.), Rethinking Thomas Kuhn’s Legacy, Springer 2024). In the paper, I claim that Kuhn’s work may have been snubbed by major analytic philosophers, but it, nevertheless, significantly affected philosophical developments, mostly in reaction to the threat it was presumed to pose. I give examples of this impact and offer an explanation of Kuhn’s marginalization in analytic philosophy. I argue that philosophers failed to seriously engage with Kuhn’s work because they did not appreciate its revolutionary character. This is a situation that Kuhn describes in relation to scientific revolutions. Initially, revolutionary ideas seem unintelligible, irrational, or wrong and are resisted and cast aside. But, eventually, if they break new ground carrying a promise of success, they catch on. I argue that Kuhn’s philosophy had a similar reception. It was initially resisted, but it eventually succeeded in impacting a great many areas of thought, including analytic philosophy.

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