Philosophy of Science Lecture Series - Two Types of Discovery: Nobel Meets Kuhn

Traditionally, philosophers of science have associated discovery with the discovery of ideas; the discovery of objects has been a largely neglected topic. It has also largely been unnoticed that Kuhn made a significant contribution to this topic. In this talk I will review and defend the distinction Kuhn drew between two types of discovery of objects, which I have elsewhere called “that-what” and “what-that” discoveries (Schindler 2015). I will also present a new analysis of the Nobel prizes in physics of the last 52 years, demonstrating the usefulness of the distinction.