Talk:Thomas Samuel Kuhn

From Wikinfo

Naming conventions

I just did some writing for the History of Science and Technology article and got a green link for "Thomas S. Kuhn." So I followed it, excitedly expecting something different from WP and found instead a redirect to "Thomas Samuel Kuhn." "Who's this?" I asked. But it was instead "Thomas S. Kuhn." This isn't right, and I'll tell you why. I did a search on JSTOR for "Thomas Samuel Kuhn" and had 12 hits, 5 of which are articles, 3 of those were obits, and 1 was a book review. For "Thomas S. Kuhn," there were 1798 hits in JSTOR (granted, some are tables of contents, etc.). So why is the article titled "Thomas Samuel Kuhn?" The weight of evidence clearly shows that "Thomas S. Kuhn" is the name by which he and his work are known (by a factor of over 100 to 1). I'm new to this wiki; I poked around a bit and did not finding any policies on naming conventions. So if there are policies on naming conventions, please direct me. If not, I think this page should be moved to "Thomas S. Kuhn."-Dynamo 16:56, 18 Mar 2006 (EST)

If you get no response take this up with FJB or Proteaus. Usually the full name is given and you can make redirect pages so if someone is searching for this, he can find it easily. You can make as many redirect pages as needed to get people to the right spot.WHEELER 18:54, 18 Mar 2006 (EST)

There are no sure conventions with names. Anyone who says otherwise is a librarian within a particular paradigm Kuhn would have criticized, perhaps. He's best known as "Thomas Kuhn" to me - did you try that search? Sometimes, a name is more of a "trademark" usage, like "Madonna", while other times it's nothing more than an arbitrary form handed down from the Wikipedians - so go exceptions to neat and tidy "rules" :) -proteus 23:38, 18 Mar 2006 (EST)

Yes, that's my "original research." And just to complete the survey, there are 3517 hits on JSTOR for "Thomas Kuhn." So I revise my early claim: clearly scholars refer to him mostly as "Thomas Kuhn" even though The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is by "Thomas S. Kuhn." Regarding naming conventions, they are very useful and establish the "style" of an encyclopedia; without rules on petty matters editors could be in endless revert wars over whether to use middle names or middle initials. Over in WP, I'm not willing to police such matters. And, no, librarians do not have paradigms (case in point: the coexistence of Library of Congress and Dewey Decimal systems). Kuhn was suspicious about the applicability of his theory outside the sciences. Thanks for the comments -Dynamo 14:20, 19 Mar 2006 (EST)