KUHN'S ELUSIVE CONCEPT OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

Although Kuhn became famous for his theory of scientific revolutions, his concept of scientific revolution was a changing and elusive one. I want to show here that his view on revolutionary scientific change evolved in three major phases: (i) one that preceded The Structure, (ii) the elaboration of his main theses in The Structure, and (iii) the moderation phase, when he redefined the concept of incommensurability and sketched a shaded approach to the relation between normal and revolutionary science. In the last years of his career, Kuhn attempted to improve his concept of revolution, to adapt it to his new idea of incommensurability, lexically defined. I think this attempt could be interpreted as a good indication that Kuhn was ready to abandon his excessively discontinuist vision of scientific revolution, in order to preserve the new meaning of incommensurability.