The Philosophy Book

293

See also: Francis Bacon 110–11 ■ Rudolf Carnap 257 ■ Karl Popper 262–65 ■

Paul Feyerabend 297 ■ Richard Rorty 314–19

A

merican physicist and

historian of science

Thomas Kuhn is best

known for his book The Structure

of Scientific Revolutions, published

in 1962. The book is both an

exploration of turning points in

the history of science and an

attempt to set out a theory of how

revolutions in science take place.

Paradigm shifts

Science, in Kuhn’s view, alternates

between periods of “normal science”

and periods of “crisis.” Normal

science is the routine process by

which scientists working within

a theoretical framework—or

“paradigm”—accumulate results

that do not call the theoretical

underpinnings of their framework

into question. Sometimes, of

course, anomalous, or unfamiliar,

results are encountered, but these

are usually considered to be errors

on the part of the scientists

concerned—proof, according to

Kuhn, that normal science does

not aim at novelties. Over time,

however, anomalous results can

accumulate until a crisis point is

reached. Following the crisis, if a

new theory has been formulated,

there is a shift in the paradigm,

and the new theoretical framework

replaces the old. Eventually this

framework is taken for granted,

and normal science resumes—until

further anomalies arise. An example

of such a shift was the shattering

of the classical view of space and

time following the confirmation of

Einstein’s theories of relativity. ■

CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY

IN CONTEXT

BRANCH

Philosophy of science

APPROACH

History of science

BEFORE

1543 Nicolaus Copernicus

publishes On the Revolutions

of the Heavenly Spheres,

leading to a paradigm shift in

our view of the solar system.

1934 In The Logic of Scientific

Discovery, Karl Popper defines

“falsifiability” as a criterion

for science.

AFTER

1975 Paul Feyerabend writes

Against Method, advocating

“epistemological anarchism”.

1976 In Proofs and Refutations,
Imre Lakatos brings together
Karl Popper’s “falsificationism”
and the work of Kuhn.

Today Rival interpretations
of quantum phenomena yield
rival paradigms of the
subatomic world.

NORMAL SCIENCE

DOES NOT AIM AT

NOVELTIES OF FACT

OR THEORY

THOMAS KUHN (1922–1996)

Nicolaus Copernicus’s claim that

Earth orbits the Sun was a revolution

in scientific thinking. It led to scientists

abandoning the belief that our planet

is at the center of the universe.