Larry Laudan’ın Araştırma Geleneklerinin Yöntembilimi Görüşü Ekseninde Kelâm İlminin Bilimsel Yapısı
Scientific Structure of Kalām Discipline on the Axis of Larry Laudan’s Methodology of Research Traditions Theory

Summary/Abstract: Questions such as what kind of cognitive actions are considered science, what is the correct scientific method, and on what basic principles a scientific tradition is formed, are among the main problems discussed in the context of the philosophy of science. The American philosopher Larry Laudan contributed to these discussions with the view that scientific structures are research traditions that solve experimental and conceptual problems. This paper deals with whether the science of kalām is a research tradition in accordance with Laudan’s view. In this respect, the study is important in terms of determining whether the kalām is a scientific discipline or not. The study also contributes to the updating of the scientific framework of kalām. The aim of the study is to show that kalām, which is included in the social sciences, is a scientific discipline with its unique methods and problem-solving principles through the theory of research traditions of a contemporary philosopher Laudan. In this context, it is among the aims of the study to identify the issues that kalām do not fully overlap with Laudan’s theory and to propose possible solutions on these issues. In the study, first of all, Laudan’s theory will be exposited through his work titled Progress and Its Problems: Towards a Theory of Scientific Growth, and then, whether the discipline of kalām coincides with the framework presented by Laudan or not, will be examined by referring to the basic texts of kalām. As a result of the study, the following can be said: The science of kalām has a social-experimentally and conceptually problemsolving structure and unique methods in solving problems, and it contains different thought and method traditions that determine conceptual problems. These features of kalām reveal that it largely overlaps with Laudan’s theory of "research traditions". However, the fact that kalām is ultimately a faith-based discipline raises doubts about whether it has a scientific structure. However, Laudan’s explanations in the context of the idea that axiomatic and paradigmatic beliefs are present in almost all scientific traditions offer important clues in removing this doubt. In the study, it is also discussed that the belief-based structure of kalām will not prevent its objectivity and scientificity.

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