Professor Otter was a very knowledgable speaker. He spoke on Kuhn and how his ideas came about. He began by giving a back story relating other scientists of the time to Kuhn. Also, he gave us context for how and when Kuhn’s book was written. I believe Dr. Otters talk also illuminated the fact that though men throughout history have made many great achievements and had many great discoveries, even the greatest minds are not always right about everything they believe. I greatly enjoyed Dr. Otters talk.
One of the ideas that struck me the most was when he was talking about Fleck, he said any fact can be destroyed if society deems it so. This is such a true statement since as we have seen today largely here in the U.S. there is still debate of climate change instead of just acceptance. If the society as a whole was to deny climate change then that fact, that truth would be destroyed. Facts are simply ideas believed to be true by everyone since science is a shared work, not an isolated one. Lastly, another key point made by Dr. Otter was that Kuhn stressed that the history of science is a nonlinear history of discontinuous paradigms, each of which produces different views of the world. In essence, there are unlimited ways to look at the world as each of us sees it differently. As a result, science itself is simply a compendium of ideas that have all separately but now collectively helped to shape our thinking and beliefs.