HPS211H1 Lecture Notes - Thomas Kuhn, Normal Science
5 Mar 2013
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Thought that philosophical ideas were important to history. Chapter ix nature and necessity of scientific revolutions. Are non-cumulative developmental episodes where on older paradigm is replaced in whole or in part by an incompatible new one. Cumulative: before kuhn"s writings people thought that science was cumulative, accumulation only occurs within a specific paradigm. Paradigm: everyone should be on more or less the same page, basically the dominant way of understanding the world. Normal science: established set of best" tools to use in science. Anomaly: something that does quite fit into the paradigm. Crisis: when there are so many anomalies that the paradigm doesn"t makes sense anymore. Revolution: change in the paradigm due to accumulation of anomalies, changing fundamental assumptions of research practices. Why revolution": change, some chaos; in change over period where there were no clear rules, primarily a social phenomena.
