Thomas Kuhn's View of Science

Thomas Kuhn’s View of Science
Peter Roberts

Thomas Kuhn was one of the most influential philosophers of science of the 20st century. Beginning his academic career in physics, he developed an interest in the history of science, which eventually saw him turn to the philosophy of science. His ideas were influenced strongly by the time he spent studying the works of historical scientists, such as Aristotle and Copernicus, in their original contexts. Kuhn were published his seminal work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions in 1962. Kuhn describes the work of scientists in a scientific field as being conducted under the banner of a ‘paradigm’, which he defined as “universally recognized scientific achievements that for a time provide model problems and solutions to a community of practitioners” 1 . Citing numerous historical examples, Kuhn explained science as working in two modes, which he termed normal science and revolutionary science. Normal science, said Kuhn, was the usual work of scientists, in solving puzzles and developing the paradigm under which they work. Normal science continues under the rules and methods dictated by the paradigm until a build up of anomalous observations or experimental results threaten to undermine the integrity of very science that introduced them. This state of crisis may result in the second mode of science, revolutionary science. Here, the prevailing paradigm is broken down and replaced by a totally new framework for conducting science, giving birth to a new paradigm. As this new paradigm gains acceptance among the scientific community, scientists undergo what Kuhn termed ‘gestalt switches’ and see the world in a completely new way. The scientist can be said to work in a completely different world than before, in such a way that successive paradigms cannot be qualitatively compared in any meaningful sense. They are said to be incommensurable. Kuhn’s ideas stood in stark contrast with those of Karl Popper, whose own philosophy of

References: 1. Kuhn, T. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (first edition) Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1962 preface, page X 2. Kuhn, T. What are Scientific Revolutions? Occasional Paper 18 MIT 1981, page 4 3. Ibid, page 4 4. Kuhn, T. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (first edition) Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1962 preface, page X 5. Ibid, page 10 6. Ibid, page 13 7. Wright, J. Notes on Kuhn PHIL3700 Course notes, University of Newcastle, Australia page 2 8. Ibid, Kuhn, T. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (first edition) Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1962 page 33 9. Wright, J. Notes on Kuhn PHIL3700 Course notes, University of Newcastle, Australia page 6 10. Ibid, Kuhn, T. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (first edition) Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1962 page 91 11. Ibid, page 154 12. Ibid, page 150 13. Ibid, page 113 14. Ibid, page 100 15. Wright, J. Notes on Kuhn PHIL3700 Course notes, University of Newcastle, Australia page 7 16. Ibid, Kuhn, T. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (first edition) Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1962 page 171 17. Ibid, page 171 8 18. Wright, J. Notes on Karl Popper’s Philosophy of Science PHIL3700 Course notes, University of Newcastle, Australia Page 3 19. Wright, J. Notes on Kuhn PHIL3700 Course notes, University of Newcastle, Australia page 8 20. Bala, Arun, The Dialogue of Civilizations in the Birth of Modern Science. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. 9