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Professor Nathan EnsmengerHistory & Sociology of Science
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
The Social Context of Scientific Discovery
Professor Nathan EnsmengerHistory & Sociology of Science
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
The Social Context of Scientific Discovery
Professor Nathan EnsmengerHistory & Sociology of Science
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
The Social Context of Scientific Discovery
Thomas S. Kuhn, 1922-1996B.S. in Physics, Harvard University, 1943
MA, PhD in Physics, Harvard University, 1946-1949
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
The Social Context of Scientific Discovery
Scientific
Science
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
The Social Context of Scientific Discovery
Scientific
Science
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
The Social Context of Scientific Discovery
ScientificScience
Science
• (noun) [sci·enc·es]
1 : a department of systematized knowledge as an object of study
2 : knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method
Science
• (noun) [sci·enc·es]
1 : a department of systematized knowledge as an object of study
2 : knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method
Science
• (noun) [sci·enc·es]
1 : a department of systematized knowledge as an object of study
2 : knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method
“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
Sir Isaac Newton, 1643-1727
Science as cumulative progress
Science as cumulative progress
Science as cumulative progress
Science as cumulative progress
Science as cumulative progress
Science as cumulative progress
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
The Social Context of Scientific Discovery
Revolutions
Revolution
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
The Social Context of Scientific Discovery
Revolutions
Revolution
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
The Social Context of Scientific Discovery
RevolutionsRevolution
Revolution
• (noun) [rev·o·lu·tions]
1 : the action by a celestial body of going round in an orbit or elliptical course;
2 : a) sudden, radical, or complete change b) : a fundamental change in political organization; c) : activity or movement designed to effect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation d) : a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something : a change of paradigm <the Copernican revolution>
Revolution
• (noun) [rev·o·lu·tions]
1 : the action by a celestial body of going round in an orbit or elliptical course;
2 : a) sudden, radical, or complete change b) : a fundamental change in political organization; c) : activity or movement designed to effect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation d) : a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something : a change of paradigm <the Copernican revolution>
Revolution
• (noun) [rev·o·lu·tions]
1 : the action by a celestial body of going round in an orbit or elliptical course;
2 : a) sudden, radical, or complete change b) : a fundamental change in political organization; c) : activity or movement designed to effect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation d) : a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something : a change of paradigm <the Copernican revolution>
Revolution
• (noun) [rev·o·lu·tions]
1 : the action by a celestial body of going round in an orbit or elliptical course;
2 : a) sudden, radical, or complete change b) : a fundamental change in political organization; c) : activity or movement designed to effect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation d) : a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something : a change of paradigm <the Copernican revolution>
Normal Science Crisis
Anomalies
Revolution
Kuhnian Paradigm Shift
Normal Science is what most scientists mostly do.
Paradigms:Accepted examples of actual scientific practice -- examples which include law, theory, application, and instrumentation together -- that provide models from which spring particular coherent traditions of scientific research.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, p. 11.
The Ptolemaic Universe
Revolution
• (noun) [rev·o·lu·tions]
1 : the action by a celestial body of going round in an orbit or elliptical course;
2 : a) sudden, radical, or complete change b) : a fundamental change in political organization; c) : activity or movement designed to effect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation d) : a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something : a change of paradigm <the Copernican revolution>
Copernicus: Conversation with God Jan Matejko, 1872
Nicholas Copernicus, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres (1543)
The Ptolemaic Universe
Normal Science Does Not Aim at Novelty
Normal Science Does Not Aim at Novelty
"Normal science does not aim at novelties of fact or theory and, when successful, finds none."
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (52)
Mars in Retrograde Motion
There can be no paradigm change without
crisis.
Discoveries are rare because expectations
cloud our vision.
The decision to reject one paradigm is always a
decision to accept another.
The decision to reject one paradigm is always a
decision to accept another.
“To reject one paradigm without substituting another is to reject science itself.”
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, p. 79.
Science is non-cumulative because terms change their
meanings.
Science is non-cumulative because terms change their
meanings.
Sometimes F≠MA ...
“Though the world does not change with a change of paradigm, the scientist afterwards works in a different world.”
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, p. 121.
“Though the world does not change with a change of paradigm, the scientist afterwards works in a different world.”
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, p. 121.
Paradigms are Incommensurable.
“Though the world does not change with a change of paradigm, the scientist afterwards works in a different world.”
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions , p. 121.
Normal Science Crisis
Anomalies
Revolution
Kuhnian Paradigm Shift
Is Science Arbitrary?
Cloud Chamber Experiment, c. 2005
