> I think any interpretation of Kuhnian paradigm shifts that excludes arguably the two biggest revolutions in science, ever, cannot be correct. Tell that to Ku

> I think any interpretation of Kuhnian paradigm shifts that excludes arguably the two biggest revolutions in science, ever, cannot be correct. Tell that to Kuhn himself. The requirement of incommensurability for paradigm shifts is his, not mine. I agree that there is a different concept of "paradigm shift" in science, which does describe what happened when relativity and QM were adopted. But that concept is not Kuhn's concept. In both of those changes (as I've already said with regard to the change to relativity), the old theory was contained in the new one as a special case or approximation. And that is precisely why they are not Kuhnian paradigm shifts--because the theories aren't incommensurable. That doesn't mean they weren't radical changes: it just means that Kuhn's ideas about how radical changes actually happen in science were not very accurate.