Notions of the Concept of ‘Ways of Thinking’: From Classical Historical Epistemology to Kuhn

Abstract

In this chapter I shall present the main notions of the concept of ‘ways of thinking’ that have been conceived in the wake of the tradition of historical epistemology and I shall highlight their common features. My analysis will show that the objectives of these notions were to replace Kant’s a priori. In other words, shedding light on how objectivity is possible is the necessary goal of their common programme of research—that of historicizing Kant’s a priori. My analysis will also show how historicized Kantianism has been crucial to the formation of French historical epistemology. Since these notions capture different channels through which objectivity becomes possible, it will be possible to group them in the same genus within historical epistemology and say that all these frameworks provide a ‘history of objectivity’.