ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to provide document Thomas S. Kuhn's move away from conceptual relativism and rationality relativism, and analysis of his later tendency toward an ontological form of relativism. It discusses the Kuhn's shift away from a relativistic stance about rationality and conceptual schemes. The chapter analyses the matters of ontology by considering Kuhn's earlier idealist sounding talk of world change and his later idea of changes in the taxonomic categories which theories impose on the world. The key relativist tendency in Kuhn's position detected by the critics’ centers upon the combination of the claim of paradigm dependent evaluative criteria with the denial of higher order criteria. The relativist tendency of Kuhn's original position is so pronounced that some of those sympathetic to Kuhn have attempted to defend him by presenting a more defensible version of relativism. However, a version of conceptual relativism appropriate to Kuhn's model requires a close connection between paradigms and the conceptual apparatus which they employ.
