Thomas Kuhn’s Account Of Science Essays Examples

Thomas Kuhn, who was once a physicist, now is regarded as one of the most important historians and philosophers of science. His account of science, paradigms and scientific revolutions described in his magnum opus The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is perhaps the most notable and studied document in the field of philosophy of science and is also the main subject of this work.
In his historical account of science, Thomas Kuhn distinguishes four main milestones or stages, of which the last three are cyclical in their nature. They are pre-science, normal science, crisis, and the scientific revolution. Pre-science is a stage at which the scientific knowledge and inquiry are immature. It is characterized by the absence of the paradigm and disagreement about the fundamentals of knowledge. There are as many different theories as there are the workers in the field and so, the thorough work on details is impossible. As the agreement about the fundamentals is achieved, the paradigm emerges, and the normal science commences to function. During this stage, the puzzles within the paradigm are solved as well as more precise results are obtained. These may be the attempts of broadening the explanative scope of the theory, such as using Newtonian mechanics to explain the behavior of fluids and gasses. The third stage, crisis, emerges when the paradigm faces phenomena which cannot be explained within the current paradigm. Not all the anomalies bring crisis, each paradigm experiences certain hardships and unsolved puzzles, however, if the anomaly hits in the foundations or most basic principles of the paradigm and the controversy cannot be solved for a rather long time, then the paradigm faces a crisis. As the proponents of the dominant start to give up their support and the new theories emerge, the scientific revolution happens. As more and more radical attempts are made to resolve the crisis, the rival paradigms are created. A Scientific revolution is a paradigm shift when the scientific community adopts a new paradigm which gains the most support instead of an old one.
The concept of paradigm used by Thomas Kuhn is rather complex. The puzzle is that it cannot be given a direct and precise definition. In this account, Kuhn compares it to the notion of "game," all its precise definitions either fall short of incorporating all the paradigms, or include something that is not essentially a paradigm. Nevertheless, paradigms have several important and distinctive features. First of all, a single paradigm governs the stage of normal science. It distinguishes mature science from pre-science. In the mature science stage, there is a single paradigm setting the standards for scientific work in the specific field. Paradigm directs and guides the explorative and puzzle-solving activities of the scientists. Each paradigm has definite basic assumptions and fundamental laws. The methods of their applications are also specified within the paradigm. The instruments and research techniques are also specified within the paradigm and are often characteristic to it. Lastly, each paradigm contains some vast methodologic prescription.
An important process to which substantial attention should be given is the process of transition from one theory to another. The point that Kuhn stresses here is that the choice of the new theory which will be further developed is deeply subjective. It is subjective not in the sense that it is a matter of taste, but in the sense that the judgment of every particular scientist who adopts certain theory is based on his own preferences regarding the importance of the theory characteristics. Kuhn argues that by the time of theory transition, there is no objective choice between the competing theories. As none of the theories explains all the phenomena and observations perfectly, the theories rival because each of them has its stronger points. The theories are often assessed by their three characteristics – accuracy, consistency, and simplicity. The subjectivity of theory choice arises from the fact that each of the competing theories explains some aspects of reality or certain phenomena better. The main point is that the preference for a certain theory is given on a basis of what stronger aspects of each theory are valued more. And this choice is purely subjective; it is usually determined by the scientist's experience and vision.
As denoted by the name of the book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, it is the revolutions which are given the most credit by Thomas Kuhn. The reason why he named the paradigm shifts as scientific revolutions is that they bear resemblance in all their aspects to political revolutions. Thomas Kuhn draws several parallels between political and scientific revolutions. First of all, the shift of paradigm signifies that the previous paradigm failed to meet all the challenges it was designed for and needs to be replaced with a more suitable one. This is very similar to political revolutions in which the governmental institutions which no longer meet the challenges put forth by society are replaced. The second important similarity is that when the old paradigm is found to be no longer viable, the new emerging paradigms and theories are very similar to the propositions of emerging political forces about the new government. And as the decision of which power to support lies on the shoulders of each individual, when a scientific revolution occurs, the choice of new theory to support is also subjective and is based on preferences and judgment of each scientist.