Thomas Kuhn

Thomas Kuhn was an American historian and philosopher of science whose account of scientific change emphasized periods of normal research interrupted by revolutions that transform shared paradigms.

Paradigm: A shared framework of concepts, methods, standards, and exemplary solutions that guides research within a scientific community. Kuhn made paradigms the central framework through which scientific communities conduct normal research.
The Copernican Revolution: The historical transformation from Earth-centered astronomy toward a Sun-centered account of the planetary system. Kuhn examined this episode as a case of scientific change in his early historical work.
Karl Popper: An Austrian-British philosopher of science who argued that scientific theories should be exposed to attempted falsification. Popper emphasized critical testing, while Kuhn stressed puzzle-solving within accepted paradigms.
Paradigm shift: A substantial change in the basic framework through which a community understands and investigates a subject. Kuhn’s work made this phrase widely associated with abrupt changes in scientific thought.
Normal science: Research that solves puzzles within a scientific community’s accepted theoretical and methodological framework. Kuhn used this term for the routine research that dominates between scientific revolutions.
Aristotle: An ancient Greek philosopher whose writings shaped influential accounts of nature, motion, and knowledge. Kuhn’s study of Aristotle helped him see how scientific ideas make sense within their historical frameworks.
Imre Lakatos: A philosopher of science who assessed research programmes by how they develop and respond to evidence. Lakatos sought a rational account of scientific change that engaged with Kuhn’s challenge.
Scientific progress: The development of scientific knowledge through changes in explanations, methods, evidence, and understanding. Kuhn questioned whether progress follows a single cumulative path toward an entirely framework-independent truth.
Scientific anomaly: An observation or result that resists explanation within an accepted scientific framework. Persistent anomalies can expose limits in the paradigm guiding normal science.
Alexandre Koyré: A historian of science known for interpreting early modern science through transformations in ideas and concepts. Koyré’s history of conceptual change helped shape Kuhn’s approach to scientific revolutions.

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