Thought Experiments in the Crisis of the Human and Social Sciences: Articulating Two Ideas by Kuhn and Neurath’s Utopianism

Abstract

Kuhn advances that thought experiments have an important function in the historical development of the sciences because they offer opportunities for scientific communities to test the adjustment between their conceptual apparatus and the world, as well as to reformulate the conceptual apparatus. In another text, Kuhn claims that the human sciences face a constant need for reformulating their conceptual apparatus and reinterpreting their phenomena. In this essay, I articulate the two ideas to suggest that some areas in the human and social sciences could benefit from a methodology that includes imaginative exercises such as Otto Neurath’s scientific utopianism.