Potters, Jan (2027) Sharpening Philosophical Concepts: Thomas Kuhn and the History of Quantum Physics. [Preprint]

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Abstract

In 1962, Thomas Kuhn started work on a project titled Sources
for History of Quantum Physics. For this project, Kuhn and his col-
laborators conducted interviews with quantum physicists, and they
collected archival materials regarding these developments. As of yet,
the SHQP-project has received little attention from Kuhn-scholars. I
will discuss how Kuhn made use of these historical materials in his
later work. My starting point will be a claim by Anke te Heesen, who
argues that Kuhn’s aim with the interviews was to empirically test
Structure. I will argue that there is little evidence for this claim, and
that Kuhn’s primary aim was instead to collect as much historical re-
sources as possible. These he then used, among other things, in his
work on a lecture titled ‘The Crisis of the Old Quantum Theory, 1922-
1925’. I will then highlight how Kuhn, in his philosophical writings,
made use of this historical study to further sharpen certain concepts
he had introduced in Structure. This will also allow me to reply to
a claim by Suman Seth, who has argued that Kuhn’s crisis-concept
does not fit quantum theory before 1925. I will argue, however, that
Kuhn’s work was very close to Seth’s own position.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Potters, Jan Jan.Potters@UAntwerpen.be 0000-0002-5292-5369
Subjects:	General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > History of Science Case Studies Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Depositing User:	Dr. Jan Potters
Date Deposited:	29 May 2026 12:41
Last Modified:	29 May 2026 12:41
Item ID:	29809
Subjects:	General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > History of Science Case Studies Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Date:	2027
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/29809

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