Historicist Theories of Scientific Rationality
Updated 2026-09-10
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Many scientists, philosophers, and laypeople regard science as the one human enterprise capable of escaping historical contingency and establishing eternal truths about the universe by a special rational method. Historicists reject this view, holding that scientific method and standards of rationality themselves change with history. What counts as evidence, a good explanation, or a legitimate problem is relative to a paradigm or research programme.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Standard reflection: recognize that observation and evaluation are theory-laden, and avoid treating current standards as an eternal yardstick. - Dispute interpretation: read paradigm controversies as disputes over standards rather than simple disputes over right and wrong.
Anchor fast decisions
The pivot of historicism is the mutual penetration of theory and observation: observation is theory-laden, and standards of evaluation vary with paradigms or research programmes, so no supra-historical, neutral methodological rule exists. Rationality is recast as solving problems in concrete historical settings, comparing the progressiveness of programmes, or as norms sustained by community practice.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- plato.stanford.eduhttps://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rationality-historicist/verified
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