Schindler, Samuel (2025) Two Types of Natural Kind Discovery: Nobel Meets Kuhn. [Preprint]

Text SSchindler Nobel discovery PoS final.pdf Download (374kB)

Abstract

Philosophers have spilled much ink over the discovery of ideas in the classical “context of discovery”. However, there has been little engagement with the question of what constitutes a discovery of “things in the world”. A much-overlooked answer to this question is provided by T.S. Kuhn. In this paper, I show that discoveries awarded with a Nobel Prize in Physics in the past 53 years accord with a basic premise of Kuhn's account and his distinction between two types of natural kind discoveries. I also draw normative conclusions for credit attribution in science.

---

Export/Citation:

EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL

Social Networking:

Share |

---

Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Schindler, Samuel samuel.schindler@css.au.dk 0000-0002-5656-9840
Additional Information:	forthcoming in Philosophy of Science
Keywords:	natural kind discovery, Kuhn, Nobel prizes, physics, theory and experiment, credit attribution
Subjects:	General Issues > Evidence General Issues > Experimentation General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Natural Kinds Specific Sciences > Physics General Issues > Theory Change General Issues > Theory/Observation
Depositing User:	Samuel Schindler
Date Deposited:	10 Oct 2025 11:25
Last Modified:	10 Oct 2025 11:25
Item ID:	26870
Subjects:	General Issues > Evidence General Issues > Experimentation General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Natural Kinds Specific Sciences > Physics General Issues > Theory Change General Issues > Theory/Observation
Date:	2025
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/26870

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Actions (login required)

View Item