Incommensurability, rationality and relativism

in science, culture and science education

Harvey Siegel

pp. 207-224

in: Howard Sankey (ed), Incommensurability and related matters, Berlin, Springer, 2001

Abstract

In this paper I revisit some of the old debates concerning incommensurability, rationality and relativism, and argue that no relativistic or irrationalistic conclusions can be legitimately drawn from the ur-arguments concerning incommensurability. I then consider incommensurability understood more broadly than it is usually understood in philosophy of science, as involving not two or more incomparable scientific theories, but rather fundamentally divergent cultures or world views. I relate this broad understanding of incommensurability to contemporary interest in multiculturalism, and consider its ramifications for a subject that philosophers of science unfortunately tend to ignore: that of science education. Attending to science education, I urge, allows us to see from a new angle what is at stake in our philosophical musings concerning incommensurability.