The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is a landmark examination of the nature of scientific progress. Contrary to the common notion that science functions as an accumulative enterprise where facts are gathered by disinterested objective scientists and incorporated into models, Kuhn argues that the process is more of an episodic one. The scientific enterprise is a social one in which scientists operate within institutions and paradigms established and defended. Kuhn considers the daily practice of scientists as they are perceived by the public to constitute “normal science”. It is in this daily practice that scientists inevitably accumulate data points that are anomalous and cannot be neatly fit into existing models. Anomalous data accumulate over time and reach a level at which existing models cannot be sustained. This is the point when revolutionary science takes place and new models are proposed, one of which ultimately takes hold and scientists return to the practice of “normal science”.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions introduced the subjective human element into the thinking about science, and gave a more realistic view of how it operates on the ground.
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