How Science Progresses According to Thomas Kuhn
In years when all people saw scientific progress as a constant development in an array of putative theories and facts, American historian and science philosopher Thomas Kuhn brought challenges to the prevailing scientific views. In his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), Kuhn espoused the notion that periods of revolutionary science interrupt the theoretical continuity in normal science and the encounter of irregularities during those periods brings a new paradigm that could alter the rules and directions of the research, raise questions of some old data, and lead to a phase further than the usual puzzle-solving of normal science (Emory University, 2010). He saw “progress as periods of application and development of dominant theories interrupted by periods of conflict” (Losee, 2004, p. 14). To better understand Kuhn’s proposition, Chalmers (2007, p. 108) illustrated an open-ended scheme that pictures Kuhn’s idea of how science progresses: pre-science, normal science, crisis, revolution, new normal science, and new crisis. The key features of his theory are the weight he placed on the revolutionary character of scientific progress – where a revolution denotes rejection of one theoretical structure in replacement by another incompatible structure, the significant role played by the sociological characteristics of scientific communities (Chalmer, 2007, p. 108-109). This scientific revolution involves a disorganized and differing activity preceding the formation of science that eventually becomes structured when one paradigm or theoretical assumption becomes adhered to by a community of scientists. Crises are expected during the process that would illicit investigation and an attempt to solve the apparent falsification. A crisis is resolved when new paradigms emerge and attract the loyalty of more scientists until the problem-ridden paradigm is abandoned. The new paradigm now guides new normal scientific activity (Chalmer, 2007, p. 108).
References
Chalmers, A.F. (2007). What is this Thing called Science. Australia: University of Queensland
Press
Emory University (2010). Thomas Kuhn. Retrieved from
http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/Kuhnsnap.html
Losee, J. (2004). Theories of Scientific Progress: An Introduction. New York: Routledge.
