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He is most famous for his book [The Structure of Scientific Revolutions]? in which he presented the idea that science does not "evolve gradually toward truth", but instead undergoes periodic revolutions which he calls [paradigm shift]?s. |
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He is most famous for his book [The Structure of Scientific Revolutions]? in which he presented the idea that science does not "evolve gradually toward truth", but instead undergoes periodic revolutions which he calls [paradigm shifts]?. |
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One well known Kuhnian example involves Copernicus' suggestion that the earth revolves around the sun, rather than the other way round. Prior to Copernicus there was an elaborate set of mathematical formulas which were used to predict the movements of the 'heavenly bodies' but those formulas were becoming increasingly complex as the movement of those bodies was know with more detail. However, Copernicus offered a radical new explanatory theory, which decreased the complexity of the current theory. Of course, once Copernicus' theory was accepted by other astronomers, it ushered in a new period of normal science. |
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One well known Kuhnian example involves Copernicus' suggestion that the earth revolves around the sun, rather than the other way round. Prior to Copernicus there was an elaborate set of mathematical formulas which were used to predict the movements of the 'heavenly bodies' but those formulas were becoming increasingly complex as the movement of those bodies was know with more detail. However, Copernicus offered a radical new explanatory theory, which decreased the complexity of the current theory. Of course, once Copernicus' theory was accepted by other astronomers, it ushered in a new period of normal science. Another much more recent example is the acceptance of plate tectonics the 1960's by geologists and special relativity in the 1910's by physicists. |
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Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1962 |
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Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1962 - ISBN 0226458083 (amazon.com, search) |
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