Personal Philosophy: Attaching meaning & value

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Note to the Student:

I gathered from your question that while your professor requires you to relate the ideas presented by Khun & Sarup to your personal life & its applications, you are also expected to display a sense of mastery of structuralism & the idea of meaning & value as well as relate this to the ideas of other philosophers & their theories. You are expected to write a narrative-essay that would display the skill of reflexivity. In the solution below I have done exactly just that & while we could have gone the 'simplistic route' this is a philosophical-socilogical discourse full-on which I believe, since you have Sarup & Khun as your references is what is expected of you. If you need any explanation regarding the solution, just send me a message. I hope you get your paper done in time. Please use the word attachment below is which is the word version of the solution - it is a much better version as I presented it with ease of printing & referencing in mind for you. Good Luck!

OTA 105878
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Philosophy: Meaning & Value

Thomas Kuhn in Situating Knowledge

Thomas Kuhn, I believe is one of the most prolific thinkers of our period having identified what is now regarded as given in terms of the nature of knowledge, scientific, critical or mass-accepted 'truth'. Sociologist Ian Hacking, a conventionalist as well as a structuralist by perspective offers us the simplest & most important notion of Kuhn's view about the scientific-knowledge relevance debate,

"Science is in time & is essentially Historical." (1983)

Kuhn's 'Scientific Revolution' idea is best exemplified by the example of the 'gestalt shift' from Newtonian/Linear Physics to Einstein's quantum physics. There is nothing wrong with Newton's idea, in fact it served the scientific world so well that it led to avenues of discovery that changed the world, and it provided a foundational set of principles that led to the identification of scientific laws. The problem however happened when Newtonian physics, when applied to Astronomical problems, led to anomalies and soon, critical miscalculations. From mid-19th century onwards, these anomalies accumulated resulting to 'scientific crisis', when Linear Physics was deemed 'bursting at the seams'. When problems occur though, new approaches are tried and tested to provide an alternative so as to remedy the problem. In this case, Einstein's theory of relativity was the 'Eureka!' moment. The adaptation of the Theory of relativity as the new foremost scientific principle in physics led to resolution of the crisis as well as new scientific breakthroughs which led to a further understanding of the nature of the Universe as well as of Life. Thomas Kuhn believes that scientific knowledge is situated, its relevance, while transmutable is situated in socially & in time. This is because knowledge accumulated has only reached a certain point & the set of principles in-use are based on this. Man, being adaptable runs into new discoveries & finds new problems to solve, needing more 'amplified' & 'innovative' solutions. When problems accumulate, it results into a crisis leading to a scientific revolution & transformation and a new way of thinking, a new paradigm of knowledge.

Essentially, the idea of a personal philosophy and of meaning and value can be related to the idea of situated knowledge by Thomas Kuhn. Man, I believe is an adaptable animal situated socially & in time. He is shaped by his socialization which is also framed in time & by the cultural & social networks he was/is in & the ideas/problems/notions prevalent in the particular stages of his life/time period. To explore meaning & value from a personal perspective is a structuralist approach, structuralism being defined as that sociological approach to understand the workings of the social world by providing specific focus on its varied aspects in order to provide a clearer picture from the ground up. Structuralism can be used as a viewpoint to understand the varied aspects of one's life including finding the value of the meaning of social relationships by undertaking an extensive look into one's philosophies & moral codes. I believe that through the years, we accumulate experience thereby providing us with the backdrop from which to attain a certain sense of wisdom, whatever the problem or topic. In this way, what we know as ...