The structure of scientific revolutions

Thomas S. Kuhn0226458032, 9780226458038, 0226458040, 9780226458045

“The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is a landmark in intellectual history which has attracted attention far beyond its own immediate field…. It is written with a combination of depth and clarity that make it an almost unbroken series of aphorisms. Its author, Thomas S. Kuhn, wastes little time on demolishing the logical empiricist view of science as an objective progression toward the truth. Instead he erects from ground up a structure in which science is seen to be heavily influenced by nonrational procedures, and in which new theories are viewed as being more complex than those they usurp but not as standing any closer to the truth Science is not the steady, cumulative acquisition of knowledge that is portrayed in the textbooks. Rather, it is a series of peaceful interludes punctuated by intellectually violent revolutions … in each of which one conceptual world view is replaced by another….

“Since Kuhn Joes not permit truth to be a criterion of scientific theories, he would presumably not claim his own theory to be true. But if causing a revolution is the hallmark of a superior paradigm, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions has been a resounding success.”—Nicholas Wade, Science

“Occasionally there emerges a book which has an influence far beyond its originally intended audience …. Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions … has now clearly emerged as just such a work.”—Ron Johnston, Times Higher Education Supplement