The Problem of Language in Thomas Kuhn: Aristotelian Physics and Hermeneutics

Comprehending both outdated or superseded and competitive “paradigms” in a common ground, in other words, the conceptualisation of “scientific revolutions” underlies the core idea of the works of Thomas Kuhn. Related with this topic, in his writings after 80s Kuhn shows a hermeneutics based expansion within the frame of a partial linguistic innovation and especially as an alternative to Quine’s translation method. Moreover, he asserts that this expansion had influenced his approaches of the history of science in the 1960s in some sense. In this study, we put forward an analysis of Aristotle reading on which Kuhn based his understanding-oriented approach within the framework of “What are Scientific Revolutions?” So, by making a general criticism of Kuhn’s reception of Aristotle’s Physics, it is aimed to seek the possibilities of different perspectives to Kuhn’s linguistic turn after the 80s.