This quotation from THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS (U. of Chicago Press: 1962, 2012), by Thomas S. Kuhn, is applicable to the commemoration of Christopher Columbus' alleged discovery of America each October. Simply transpose, the words "America" and "oxygen," bracketed below, and marvel at the historical irony of the result!
"Clearly we need a new vocabulary and concepts for analyzing events like the discovery of [oxygen]. Though undoubtedly correct, the sentence, "[Oxygen] was discovered," misleads by suggesting that discovering something is a simple act assimilable to our usual (and questionable) concept of seeing. That is why we so readily assume that discovering, like seeing or touching, should be unequivocally attributed to an individual and to a moment in time. But the latter attribution is always impossible, and the former often is as well." p.55.
Once oxygen and America are transposed in Kuhn's quotation, one finds that it is "always impossible" to attribute the discovery of America with any "moment in time," nor to "attribute it to an individual, unequivocally."
Friday, September 27, 2013
OXYGEN, COLUMBUS, AMERICA
This quotation from THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS (U. of Chicago Press: 1962, 2012), by Thomas S. Kuhn, is applicable to the commemoration of Christopher Columbus' alleged discovery of America each October. Simply transpose, the words "America" and "oxygen," bracketed below, and marvel at the historical irony of the result!
"Clearly we need a new vocabulary and concepts for analyzing events like the discovery of [oxygen]. Though undoubtedly correct, the sentence, "[Oxygen] was discovered," misleads by suggesting that discovering something is a simple act assimilable to our usual (and questionable) concept of seeing. That is why we so readily assume that discovering, like seeing or touching, should be unequivocally attributed to an individual and to a moment in time. But the latter attribution is always impossible, and the former often is as well." p.55.
Once oxygen and America are transposed in Kuhn's quotation, one finds that it is "always impossible" to attribute the discovery of America with any "moment in time," nor to "attribute it to an individual, unequivocally."