The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Outline

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) changed the way we understand how science progresses. Thomas Samuel Kuhn argues that science does not simply advance step by step. Instead, scientists work within a shared framework, or paradigm, until unexplained problems pile up and a scientific revolution replaces it with a new one, as when Copernicus placed the Sun at the centre. The book introduced the widely used idea of a paradigm shift.

• Science does not move forward only step by step; it also advances through sudden revolutions that overturn dominant ideas.
• Scientists normally work inside a shared framework, called a paradigm, that shapes the questions they ask and the answers they accept.
• Unexplained problems slowly pile up until the existing paradigm can no longer account for the new evidence.
• A scientific revolution replaces the old framework with a new one, as when Copernicus placed the Sun at the centre.
• The book introduced the idea of a paradigm shift, which is now widely used well beyond science.

Thomas Samuel Kuhn (1922–1996) was an American physicist, historian, and philosopher of science. Trained in physics at Harvard University, he later taught at Harvard, the University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His books include The Copernican Revolution and The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, one of the most cited academic books of the twentieth century.