-- A rule tells you how to use a tool -- A paradigm helps you recognise which tool is the right one to be using
I don't see how to connect these two statements to the three points that follow.
Does a rule tell you how to use any tool, or does it tell you how to use a particular tool?
For me to have any hope of understanding what you mean, you need to give an example of a tool, give an example of a rule (one that tells you how to use the tool), and give an example of a paradigm (one that tells you which tool to use). And to give me any sense of what the connection is here to Kuhn, you need to quote what Kuhn actually says.
Given the subject matter, it's ironic that I need to prod you to do this.
Of course, it would help if I would type in some more text from Kuhn, which I intend to over the next several days. But here's an example - not quoted from Kuhn, but it's similar to one he might give. Say I'm a tax collector and I'm allowed to give a tax break to anyone who owns a swan. But being into rules, I go to my supervisor and say, "Help me, I need you to give me a rule for how to recognize a swan." He says, "A simple rule: if it's white, it's a swan." Now, this isn't a very good rule, since the category "swan" all of a sudden includes a lot of refrigerators and paper towels etc., and the government is about to lose a lot of revenue. But this problem aside, another problem arises, which is how can we tell when an object is white? I say, "No problem, I already know what white is." But my supervisor asks me, "What's the rule you use in deciding when something is white?" And we discover that I can't tell him, because I don't have such a rule. I just know how to do it, and I tell my boss it's a lot easier making judgment calls about when something is white (versus, say, beige) than it is making judgment calls in regard to gymnastic competitions, which I do on the side for a few extra bucks at the Cassie Ventura School For The Performing Arts.
If we want to, my supervisor and I can come up with a rule for "whiteness" involving light and wavelengths and reflection and such, but of course I haven't previously used such a rule when making judgments about whiteness and nonetheless I rarely have any problem in making such judgments. Anyhow, the department can't afford the equipment that would allow me to apply such a rule.
A developmental psychologist who happens to be observing us runs over and puts me under hypnosis, and she prompts me to recount those episodes from back in my childhood when I was just learning how to speak in which people would use the word "white," including a few times when I was corrected after using the word wrong, through to the time when it finally clicked for me in general when something was "white," after which I was never again wrong.
Kuhn would say that a specific use of the word "white" that I had observed as a youngster, along with its surrounding circumstances and the correct associations I made, is a paradigm, and a number of those similar paradigms are what taught me how to use the word. And Kuhn does say that instances of a father pointing out swans to his child - enough instances so that the child doesn't think that "swan" refers to water lapping against any object, and he doesn't confuse swans with geese and ducks, which are also there in the nature preserve, etc. - are paradigms (and after a couple of hours the child gets to the point where he invariably identifies swans as well as his dad does and all this without the father offering rules or definitions). If my supervisor had been wise he'd have made like the father and given me examples rather than rules.
So, now, using the example I just gave you, and using "rule" and "paradigm" in the way that Kuhn does in such instances, tell me what the tool is (or tools are), what the rules are that tell you how to use the tool, and what the paradigms are that tell you which tool to use.
no subject
-- A paradigm helps you recognise which tool is the right one to be using
I don't see how to connect these two statements to the three points that follow.
Does a rule tell you how to use any tool, or does it tell you how to use a particular tool?
For me to have any hope of understanding what you mean, you need to give an example of a tool, give an example of a rule (one that tells you how to use the tool), and give an example of a paradigm (one that tells you which tool to use). And to give me any sense of what the connection is here to Kuhn, you need to quote what Kuhn actually says.
Given the subject matter, it's ironic that I need to prod you to do this.
Of course, it would help if I would type in some more text from Kuhn, which I intend to over the next several days. But here's an example - not quoted from Kuhn, but it's similar to one he might give. Say I'm a tax collector and I'm allowed to give a tax break to anyone who owns a swan. But being into rules, I go to my supervisor and say, "Help me, I need you to give me a rule for how to recognize a swan." He says, "A simple rule: if it's white, it's a swan." Now, this isn't a very good rule, since the category "swan" all of a sudden includes a lot of refrigerators and paper towels etc., and the government is about to lose a lot of revenue. But this problem aside, another problem arises, which is how can we tell when an object is white? I say, "No problem, I already know what white is." But my supervisor asks me, "What's the rule you use in deciding when something is white?" And we discover that I can't tell him, because I don't have such a rule. I just know how to do it, and I tell my boss it's a lot easier making judgment calls about when something is white (versus, say, beige) than it is making judgment calls in regard to gymnastic competitions, which I do on the side for a few extra bucks at the Cassie Ventura School For The Performing Arts.
If we want to, my supervisor and I can come up with a rule for "whiteness" involving light and wavelengths and reflection and such, but of course I haven't previously used such a rule when making judgments about whiteness and nonetheless I rarely have any problem in making such judgments. Anyhow, the department can't afford the equipment that would allow me to apply such a rule.
A developmental psychologist who happens to be observing us runs over and puts me under hypnosis, and she prompts me to recount those episodes from back in my childhood when I was just learning how to speak in which people would use the word "white," including a few times when I was corrected after using the word wrong, through to the time when it finally clicked for me in general when something was "white," after which I was never again wrong.
Kuhn would say that a specific use of the word "white" that I had observed as a youngster, along with its surrounding circumstances and the correct associations I made, is a paradigm, and a number of those similar paradigms are what taught me how to use the word. And Kuhn does say that instances of a father pointing out swans to his child - enough instances so that the child doesn't think that "swan" refers to water lapping against any object, and he doesn't confuse swans with geese and ducks, which are also there in the nature preserve, etc. - are paradigms (and after a couple of hours the child gets to the point where he invariably identifies swans as well as his dad does and all this without the father offering rules or definitions). If my supervisor had been wise he'd have made like the father and given me examples rather than rules.
So, now, using the example I just gave you, and using "rule" and "paradigm" in the way that Kuhn does in such instances, tell me what the tool is (or tools are), what the rules are that tell you how to use the tool, and what the paradigms are that tell you which tool to use.