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Talk title: The Role of Historical Revisionism in the Advancement of Science

Abstract:

One of Thomas Kuhn's most striking claims in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is that the version of the history of science that science students are taught -- and the public consumes — is 'Orwellian', by which he meant that it is regularly rewritten so that the past is presented as eventuating in whatever turns out to be current research frontier. Although I have been mainly a strong critic of Kuhn's work, I have always found this to be his most profound insight. In this talk, I will explore several dimensions of this insight about how science relates to its history.

Hybrid Seminar
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