The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (i)

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The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
by Thomas S. Kuhn

IX - The Nature and Necessity of Scientific .

Why should a change be called a ? What are the of scientific in the development of science?

A scientific is a non-cumulative developmental episode in which an older is replaced in whole or in part by an new one . A scientific that results in change is to a political revolution. Political begin with a growing sense by members of the that existing institutions have to meet the problems by an that they have in part . The dissatisfaction with existing institutions is generally to a segment of the political . Political aim to change political institutions in ways that those institutions themselves . As crisis deepens, themselves to some concrete proposal for the of society in a new . Competing camps and parties form. One camp to defend the old institutional constellation. One (or more) seek to a new political order. As polarisation , political recourse fails. Parties to a resort to the of mass persuasion.

Like the choice between competing political , that between competing proves to be a choice between of community life. differences cannot be reconciled. When enter into a about questions and choice, each group uses its own to argue in that 's defence The result is a circularity and inability to share a universe of discourse. A successful new permits that are different from those from its predecessor . That difference could not if the two were . In the of being assimilated, the second must the first.

, the assimilation of either a new sort of or a new scientific must demand the of an older . If this were not so, scientific development would be genuinely cumulative. is cumulative, but not scientific . New arise with destructive changes in beliefs about nature.

, "the -scientific that from a scientific is not only but often actually incommensurable with that which has gone before". In the circular argument that results from this conversation, each will satisfy more or less the that it dictates for itself, and fall short of a few of those dictated by its opponent. Since no two leave all the same problems unsolved, always the question: Which problems is it more to have solved? In the , this a question of values that lie outside of science altogether. It is this recourse to that most makes .

(A Synopsis from the orginal by Professor Frank Pajares, Emory University)