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(2001) Incommensurability and related matters, Dordrecht, Springer.
Kuhn's latest account locates incommensurability as a mismatch between taxonomies of natural kind terms. In collaboration with Hanne Andersen (University of Copenhagen) and Xiang Chen (California Lutheran University) I have developed a more general account along the same lines using the dynamic frame notation introduced by cognitive psychologist Lawrence Barsalou (Emory University, Atlanta). Here I apply a simplified version of this model to the conceptual systems of Ptolemaic, Copernican and Keplerian astronomy. I conclude that Copernicus's astronomy is only minimally incommensurable with Ptolemy's, but that Kepler's is strongly incommensurable with both.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-015-9680-0_10
Full citation:
Barker, P. (2001)., Incommensurability and conceptual change during the copernican revolution, in H. Sankey (ed.), Incommensurability and related matters, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 241-273.