Thomas Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions emphasizes that scientific progress is not simply the accumulation of knowledge, but revolutionary change through paradigm shifts. This theory has influenced not only science, but also social sciences, economics, and other fields, and has led to a rethinking of the direction of modern scientific research.
New perspectives on scientific research through the history of science
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions has had an enormous impact on the scientific and philosophical community in the nearly 50 years since its first edition was published in 1962. It argues that scientific discoveries and advances are not driven by the mere accumulation of knowledge, but by paradigm shifts that can be called ‘revolutions’. This was a highly revolutionary view in the philosophy of science community at the time and is considered to be an important event that laid the foundations for modern philosophy of science. From this perspective, Thomas Kuhn attempted to philosophize about science, and as a result, the discipline of philosophy of science was born. This was an event that could be called the “Thomas Kuhn Revolution” in itself.
Against this background, Thomas Kuhn’s theory emphasizes that science is not just a process of accumulating knowledge, but a process of revolutionary change. Here, Thomas Kuhn explores the connection between the scientific revolution and philosophy in depth, explaining what science means in philosophical discussions. Just as the concept of revolution is often used in philosophy to explain social change and development, the concept of revolution is also important in science. Thomas Kuhn’s philosophical insight that scientific revolutions are not simply an accumulation of technological discoveries, but rather a shift in disciplinary paradigms, has become an important concept in the philosophy of science.
Thomas Kuhn (hereafter, the author) is a historian of science who, over the course of his career, began to question conventional assumptions about scientific progress. The first assumption he questioned was the notion that science is “accumulative. After scrutinizing the history of science, he realized that science does not progress through accumulation, but rather through paradigm shifts. This led him to introduce the concept of a “paradigm.
The introduction of paradigms and normal science
A paradigm is a scientific ideology that is widely accepted in the scientific community, or in a relatively narrow area. It determines what problems are recognized as worthy of solving and what is a reasonable way to solve them. Scientists conduct research under the paradigm, which is called “normal research”. Normal research works very efficiently within the framework of a paradigm. Without a paradigm, research is impossible, so scientists continue to work to maintain and advance the paradigm.
However, research within the framework of a paradigm sometimes has its limitations. As scientists solve problems according to the paradigm, they sometimes encounter anomalies, or results that do not fit the paradigm. These anomalies are initially ignored or considered experimental errors, but as they accumulate over time, the paradigm faces a crisis. This process transforms normal science into anomalous science, and a new paradigm emerges, called a scientific revolution.
Thomas Kuhn argued that science develops through this process of scientific revolutions. This is a very different view from the traditional concept of “progress by accumulation”. Accumulation assumes that scientists recognize all scientific possibilities and add new discoveries to existing knowledge. Thomas Kuhn, on the other hand, argues that progress by revolution is the essence of scientific development, meaning that scientific revolutions occur when scientists ignore or distort anomalies while adhering to the existing paradigm.
Paradigm shifts and scientific progress
Paradigm shifts are important inflection points in scientific thinking and research. Normal science relies on paradigms, but when a new paradigm emerges, the existing scientific thinking changes radically. Thomas Kuhn called these scientific changes “scientific revolutions,” and he believed that scientific progress is driven by these revolutionary changes, not by accumulation. This concept is important not only in the history of science, but also from a philosophical perspective. The idea of scientific progress through paradigm shifts explains the nature of science in a different way than traditional philosophical discussions.
Thomas Kuhn’s theory of paradigm shifts has spread beyond the boundaries of science and into various disciplines. For example, innovations in economics undergo a similar process to paradigm shifts. Joseph Schumpeter’s concept of “creative destruction” explains the innovation and development of economic systems, which, like Thomas Kuhn’s scientific revolutions, have in common the process of breaking down the old system and introducing a new order. In the social sciences, the process of pushing the limits of existing theories and the emergence of new ones is also very similar to the scientific revolution described by Thomas Kuhn.
What the future of science will look like and the role of paradigms
Thomas Kuhn also provided important insights into the future of science. He argued that for a new paradigm to emerge, it must be able to solve problems that previous paradigms have not been able to solve and provide explanations that better fit nature. In this respect, Thomas Kuhn believed that by considering the limitations and problems of current paradigms, we can provide a vision for the future of science.
Modern science is sometimes criticized for being mired in academicism and sticking to theoretical research that is detached from reality. In this situation, Thomas Kuhn’s theory encourages scientists to pay more attention to nature itself rather than theories and paradigms. His concept of a paradigm shift provides an opportunity for scientists to rethink the direction of their current research. Moreover, this paradigm shift is not just within science, but can be discussed on a new level with the development of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and genetic engineering. In particular, the introduction of artificial intelligence will redefine the nature of scientific inquiry and provide an important opportunity to create new paradigms that go beyond the existing ones.
In conclusion, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions provides scientists with a new perspective and emphasizes the importance of paradigms in scientific research. Thomas Kuhn’s theory showed that science does not develop in an accumulative way, and that real progress is only achieved through revolutionary change. It has had a profound impact on the way modern scientists approach their research and remains a seminal work in the philosophy of science. While scientific progress is always unpredictable, Thomas Kuhn’s concept of paradigm shifts provides an essential framework for understanding the process.
