In 1965 Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper met at the University of London to stage what has turned out to be the most momentous philosophical debate of the 20th century. At stake was no less than the soul of science itself.
No discipline remained untouched by the consequences of this debate. Most people think they know what Popper and Kuhn stood for - and why it was a "good thing" that Kuhn's "postmodernism" triumphed over Popper's "positivism". Unfortunately, the received view about the nature and significance of the Kuhn-Popper debate is radically distorted. Yes, Kuhn won, but the effect has been to marginalise the critical spirit of scientific inquiry for which Popper stood.
Building on his controversial philosophical history of Kuhn's 'The Structure Of Scientific Revolutions', Steve Fuller adds new insights from the Kuhn archives and synthesises recent scholarship on the history, philosophical and social studies of science. The result is a provocative account of a landmark confrontation in which "the wrong guy" won.
