The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

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The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Editorial Review

Now available with a new Index, Kuhn's classic book offers "a landmark intelleectual history which has attracted attention far beyond its own immediate field (Nicholas Wade, Science). "Perhaps the best explanation of (the) process of discovery."--William Erwin Thompson, New York Times Book Review.

There's a "Frank & Ernest" comic strip showing a chick breaking out of its shell, looking around, and saying, "Oh, wow! Paradigm shift!" Blame the late Thomas Kuhn. Few indeed are the philosophers or historians influential enough to make it into the funny papers, but Kuhn is one.

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is indeed a paradigmatic work in the history of science. Kuhn's use of terms such as "paradigm shift" and "normal science," his ideas of how scientists move from disdain through doubt to acceptance of a new theory, his stress on social and psychological factors in science--all have had profound effects on historians, scientists, philosophers, critics, writers, business gurus, and even the cartoonist in the street.

Some scientists (such as Steven Weinberg and Ernst Mayr) are profoundly irritated by Kuhn, especially by the doubts he casts--or the way his work has been used to cast doubt--on the idea of scientific progress. Yet it has been said that the acceptance of plate tectonics in the 1960s, for instance, was sped by geologists' reluctance to be on the downside of a paradigm shift. Even Weinberg has said that "Structure has had a wider influence than any other book on the history of science." As one of Kuhn's obituaries noted, "We all live in a post-Kuhnian age." --Mary Ellen Curtin

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
• scientific progress is not smooth, but has false turns and dead ends
  This is the book that coined the term "paradigm." It describes the nature of scientific progress in general, a path that is not smooth, but one with false turns and dead ends. Occasionally a new theory comes along that will get science back on the right track, but never without political wars, personality clashes, and crises. Kuhn's writing style is very clinical and academic.
• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
  Forty six years after the first publication this book is still relevent to the philosophy and practice of science. Many current practitioners and theorists would do well to read it, as much of science is still stuck in dysfunctional paradigms. All science especially cognitive science is overdue for a major paradigm shift if it is to progress. A revolution is afoot in the works of Rob Ornstein, David Bohm, Benjamin Libet,Ian Stevenson and the like.
• Kuhn's work remains a must read for honest seekers of solutions to science's puzzles
  The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn, originally published in 1962, is more relevant today than ever before. Anyone with an open mind, craving the most plausible answers to many scientific puzzles, will greatly enhance their understanding of how science actually works if they read this ground-breaking work.
  I first read the book in 1972 as part of a Philosophy course that explored human thought over the centuries relative to concepts such as "Space, Time, Cause and Motion."more info
• Scientific Revolutions
  This book is widely used for doctoral programs in social sciences. Overall, it's a well-written book, but the author uses the term "paradigm" for several different concepts. If you can find a good summary of this book, just go for that one.

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