Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper, a young historian and an old philosopher, met just once to discuss the nature of science. Yet, for the last half-century Kuhn's triumph has dominated public discussions on the topic.
But could the million copies sold of Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions betray an error in collective judgement? Steve Fuller says yes: not only have we judged wrongly, but we have also radically misunderstood the parties in the process.
The future of science itself depends on understanding the philosophical, political and even religious basis of what separated Kuhn and Popper. Drawing on his own original examination of the Kuhn archives at MIT, Fuller provides an exhilarating tour of a battle that goes to heart of what we think science is. A provocative account of a landmark confrontation in which 'the wrong guy' won.
