{
Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996)
reflection #1
What is Kuhn’s thesis in the
excerpts we read for today?
Explain the stages scientific
revolutions, according to
Kuhn.

the structure of scientific revolutions:
Pre-science
 Normal science/
Result fails to
central paradigm  conform to the
paradigm? Fault
of researcher.

New
paradigm

CRISIS!

More
anomalous
 results?
so…science develops via
paradigm shifts…
….so what?
Why does
this matter?
progress is reconceived.
“Perhaps science does not
develop by the
accumulation of individual
discoveries and
inventions” (2).

science becomes as act of
many, rather than an act of
one.
Scientific discovery “is seldom
completed by a single [hu]man
and never overnight” (7).

science reflects values.
“the particular conclusions [a
scientist] does arrive at are
probably determined
by…prior experience…and by
his[/her] own individual
makeup” (4).
 “the criteria of
choice…function not as
rules…but as values, which
influence it” (The Essential
Tension).

pluralism becomes possible.

“When scientists must choose
between competing theories,
two [individuals] fully
committed to the same list of
criteria for choice may
nevertheless reach different
conclusions”
(The Essential Tension).
story-telling matters!

“History, we too often say, is a
purely descriptive discipline.
The theses suggested above
are, however, often
interpretive and sometimes
normative” (8).