Kuhn's structure of scientific revolutions

William J. Devlin, Alisa Bokulich (eds)

Springer - Berlin

2015

In 1962, the publication of Thomas Kuhn's Structure "revolutionized" the way one conducts philosophical and historical studies of science. Through the introduction of both memorable and controversial notions, such as paradigms, scientific revolutions, and incommensurability, Kuhn argued against the traditionally accepted notion of scientific change as a progression towards the truth about nature, and instead substituted the idea that science is a puzzle solving activity, operating under paradigms, which become discarded after it fails to respond accordingly to anomalous challenges and a rival paradigm.