The understanding of scientific relativism within the scope of Thomas Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend's perspectives and criticism towards this understanding

The aim of this study is to handle the relativism, which has become a dominant understanding in almost every field in which knowledge comes into question in terms of scientific knowledge. Within this scope, the approaches put forward in philosophy of science primarily by Thomas Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend are studied with their aspects that have an affect upon the formation of the relativist science understanding. These two philosophers, having lived in the 20th century, have been at the centre in the formation of the emergence of the relativist science understanding, and then the creation of criticism of science, the end of which leads to postmodern science understanding. In our study, the scientific and philosophical developments that formed the basis of the approaches belonging to these two philosophers are tried to be found out; afterwards, the scientific perspectives which these philosophers have impressed are analyzed. In particular, two alternative scientific discourses such as Islamic science project and Postmodern science understanding, which have extremely taken advantage of these philosophers, are studied. Another aim of this study is to criticize notably Thomas Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend's philosophies of science and the approaches in question that take advantage of these philosophies. In this context, the perspectives of Kuhn and Feyerabend are criticized by being classified according to certain aspects. Here, the aspect of incommensurability is one of the central aspects that each of the philosophers has dealt in different ways. The criticisms we handle are not restricted with the approaches of the two philosophers; but are given wide coverage including the understandings of Islamic science and Postmodern science. In the final part of our study, it is confirmed that the relativist science approach itself includes inadequacies even though it has played an important role to make several weaknesses of European science visible. The criticism of Islamic science and Postmodern science approaches towards the existing science and the alternative searches also bear the mentioned advantages and inadequacies. Key Words: Science, Philosophy of Science, Relativism, Incommensurability, Thomas Kuhn, Paul Feyerabend, Islamic Science, Postmodern Science.