Stoll Structure of Scientific Revolutions Essay PDF

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Kevin T. Stoll BIO 6501 The Structure of Scientific Revolutions The book The Structure of Scientific Revolution is about the progress of the field of science from the perspective of Thomas Kuhn. Kuhn introduces three major concepts in his book on how the study of a field evolves. First is the paradigm, then is the normal science, and finally the scientific revolution. In essence, you could draw this out as a continuous circle of 3 major steps with each step leading to the next but ultimately resulting in the same position as you started: hence “revolution.” Kuhn elaborates the necessity of each concept that drive the evolution of science and though he begins his review by defining and setting up the prose for “normal science,” this essay will start with the paradigm. Paradigms are defined by Kuhn to be “achievements that share two characteristics:” one being able to bring attention to it compared to the current modes of scientific activity, and two being incomplete enough to garner further efforts into gathering more information of the field. The paradigm lays the foundation upon which effort within the field of science is directed. In fact, Kuhn elaborates that in the absence of a paradigm that all of the fact-gathering related to the development of the field is random activity rather than driven. Furthermore, the facts that are collected in the absence of a paradigm may be equally relevant conversely to facts collected in the presence of a paradigm having specificity. While a paradigm will leave many questions unanswered, this provides guidance and vision for the field of which experiments to attempt to answer and clarify the paradigm through “normal science.” However, understanding Kuhn’s perspective of normal science means comparing his concept of normal science against the common perspective of normal science. The common understanding of normal science is that new phenomena and paradigm changing discoveries are the end-state; that scientists are experimenting with the hopes of presenting new theories to the field of their study. Even though science will eventually lead to new discovery, Kuhn defines his concept of normal sciences as the realization of an established paradigm, and elaborates that “normal science does not aim at the novelties of fact or theory.” Normal science, as Kuhn defines, is “research firmly based upon one or more past scientific achievements…that some particular community acknowledges for a time.” In other words, normal science consists of realizing the vision of a paradigm, the actualization of the facts displayed by a paradigm and matching them with the paradigm’s prediction. This is the process of clarifying and fulfilling the gaps within the current paradigm – puzzle solving. Most scientist are engaged in “mop-ping-up operations,” clearing the clutter or polishing the established paradigm – making the puzzle clear. The point of normal science is to complete an idea, make it as whole as possible, and ultimately come to a consensus – complete the puzzle. But if scientists are mostly engaged in normal science, how do we get to the scientific revolution? Before considering scientific revolution, there are a few things that must happen. First, there has to be some anomaly that occurs during normal science. Second, theories must be developed in response to the anomaly. Third, a crisis occurs that forces change. During the phase of normal science, an anomaly occurs that no longer fits the current paradigm which leads to questions and theories that may attempt to resolve the anomaly. Though no singular theory may resolve the anomaly, it may lead to a crisis. A crisis occurs when the current paradigm cannot handle the occurring anomalies, forcing adjustments in the paradigm to better understand and fit the new-found information. It may even lead to competing altered paradigms in attempt to understand the new anomalies. However, when the paradigms are no longer enough to keep up with the anomalies and questions occurring in normal science, the crisis will encourage the final process: the scientific revolution.

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Kevin T. Stoll BIO 6501 The Structure of Scientific Revolutions The scientific revolution is the final process of evolving the current understanding of science, but it is not a step that can be easily defined by reinterpreting the cumulative data. Kuhn describes the scientific revolution as “a gestalt shift.” During the scientific revolution, scientist will have to re-educate themselves to understand how this new data environment works. Some revolutions may be able to have foundation in a prior paradigm, but more often it may not even be relatable to the previous paradigm. Paradigm changes will often change the world view of the scientists of that realm, and even to the point where data can no longer be commensurable between paradigms. Scientists will have to relearn how to conduct normal science, which often means there will be resistance to the new paradigm, but as science evolves over time so to do the scientists.

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