Conceptual Revolutions (Thagard)

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Contents:

• Shining Light on the Hidden Mystery of Conceptual System Replacement
• Egodeath: The Mother of All Conceptual Revolutions
• Book Link
• Tailored Table of Contents

Shining Light on the Hidden Mystery of Conceptual System Replacement

“A finer-grained theory of revolutionary change than Thomas Kuhn presented in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions need not succumb to irrationalism.

“We can describe the structure of scientific knowledge and the processes that advance it.

“We can characterize the structure of conceptual systems before, during, and after conceptual revolutions; and we can investigate the cognitive mechanisms by which conceptual changes occur.”

Egodeath: The Mother of All Conceptual Revolutions

This is an updated pass of integrating Conceptual Revolutions further into the Egodeath theory and into explaining its historical development.

The book needs an ultimate chapter on the mother of all conceptual revolutions, the transformation of the mental worldmodel from Possibilism to Eternalism:
o The possibility-branching, ordinary-state, freewill-premised, Possibilism model.
o The non-branching (single-possibility), frozen-rock, altered-state, no-free-will, Eternalism model.

Book Link

Conceptual Revolutions 
Paul Thagard
March 10, 1992
http://amzn.com/0691087458 – Hardcover
http://amzn.com/B07DN3H37Z – Kindle ebook with “Look inside”

Tailored Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Problem of Revolutionary Conceptual Change

• The importance of conceptual change
• Are there scientific revolutions?
• Theses on conceptual revolutions
• Appendix: Chronology of revolutions

Chapter 2: Concepts and Conceptual Systems

• Philosophical theories of concepts
• Belief revision versus conceptual change
• What are concepts for?
• What are concepts?
• Concepts as complex structures
• Conceptual hierarchies

Chapter 3: Conceptual Change

• Degrees of conceptual change
• The chemical revolution
• Toward a theory of conceptual change
• Development of conceptual systems by discovery
  • Conceptual combination
  • Generalization
  • Abduction outward from the core
  • Special heuristics
• Replacement by discovery
• Development and replacement by instruction

Chapter 4: Explanatory Coherence

• A theory of explanatory coherence
  • Coherence
  • Principles of explanatory coherence
  • Discussion of the principles
• A model of theory evaluation
  • Connectionist models
  • Explanatory breadth
  • Being ‘explained’
  • Refutation
  • Unification
  • Simplicity
  • Analogy
  • Evidence and acceptability
  • Parameters
• Application of this model of theory evaluation to the chemical revolution
• Objections and replies
• Technical details of this model of theory evaluation
  • Algorithms
  • Sensitivity

Chapter 5: Theory Dynamics, Rationality, and Explanation

• Dynamic relations of theories
  • Theory replacement
• Impediments to rationality
  • Conversion and motivated inference
  • Sociological explanations
  • Translation
• Philosophical and computational models of explanation
  • Strands of explanation
  • Toward an integrated cognitive model of explanation

Chapter 6: The Evolutionary Revolution

• Conceptual change in evolutionary theory
  • Addition and deletion of concepts
  • New kind-relations
  • Hierarchy reinterpretation
  • Relation of the new theory to its predecessor
  • Other interpretations of the new theory
  • The reception of the new theory
• Conceptual evolution

Chapter 7: The Geological Revolution

• Conceptual development
  • Historical sketch
  • Changes in conceptual structure
  • Hierarchy transformation
  • Concepts of the opponents
• Evaluating competing theories
  • Rejection and acceptance

Chapter 8: Revolutions in Physics

• Copernicus
  • Ptolemy
  • The development of Copernicus’ theory
  • Conceptual change in Copernicus
  • The explanatory coherence of Copernicus’ theory
• Minkowski
  • The development of the block universe framework
  • Worldlines and possibility branching
  • Conceptual change in the block universe
  • The explanatory coherence of the block universe concept
• Quantum theory
  • Heidegger’s critique of the Copenhagen interpretation
  • Bohm’s deterministic nonlocal hidden variables interpretation

Chapter 9: Revolutions in Psychology

• Approaches, frameworks, and theories
• Cognitivism
  • The development of cognitivism
  • Cognitivism and conceptual change
  • Cognitivism and explanatory coherence
• Other developments

Chapter 10: Conceptual Change in Scientists and Children

• Comparative summary of scientific revolutions
  • Discovery and conceptual change
  • Explanatory coherence
  • Revolutions and scientific knowledge
• Conceptual change in children
  • Are children like scientists?
  • Changes in children’s concepts
  • Children’s theories
  • The growth of knowledge in children and scientists
• Projects for understanding science
  • Children and education
  • Scientific knowledge