Confronting Kuhn with the development of the periodic table

This paper investigates a recent dispute about whether the transition from atomic weight to atomic number as the basis for organizing the periodic table should be regarded as a Kuhnian revolution. The paper characterizes this dispute as involving a particular type of confrontation between Kuhn and the history of science, and tries to identify the point of, and prospects for, resolving disputes of this sort. Two alternative ways of applying Kuhn’s analytic machinery to the historical case at hand are sketched and it is suggested that these alternative approaches may allow us to make interesting philosophical points about this historical episode in a convincing way.