false 61539 16 There's a "Frank & Ernest" comic strip showing a chick breaking out of its shell, looking around, and saying, "Oh, wow! Paradigm shift!" Blame the late Thomas Kuhn. Few indeed are the philosophers or historians influential enough to make it into the funny papers, but Kuhn is one.<p> <I>The Structure of Scientific Revolutions</I> is indeed a paradigmatic work in the history of science. Kuhn's use of terms such as "paradigm shift" and "normal science," his ideas of how scientists move from disdain through doubt to acceptance of a new theory, his stress on social and psychological factors in science--all have had profound effects on historians, scientists, philosophers, critics, writers, business gurus, and even the cartoonist in the street.<p> Some scientists (such as Steven Weinberg and Ernst Mayr) are profoundly irritated by Kuhn, especially by the doubts he casts--or the way his work has been used to cast doubt--on the idea of scientific progress. Yet it has been said that the acceptance of plate tectonics in the 1960s, for instance, was sped by geologists' reluctance to be on the downside of a paradigm shift. Even Weinberg has said that "<I>Structure</I> has had a wider influence than any other book on the history of science." As one of Kuhn's obituaries noted, "We all live in a post-Kuhnian age." <I>--Mary Ellen Curtin</I> 1748176 1962 The Structure of Scientific Revolutions total:1274|5:422|4:473|3:276|2:73|1:30| 1274 5006 2057 160 4 3 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1984 Mon Jul 28 11:57:59 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 28 12:10:06 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 2 true false Wed Sep 10 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 01 20:26:19 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 15 07:20:36 -0700 2008 Bit of a preface: I hated this book. It contains some really good ideas, which are totally worth discussing, but the whole thing is so much wordier and denser than it needs to be (this, coming from me!); seriously, the ideas put forth in this 200-page monstrosity would have been better shared in a...more...]]> 1 1 false false Wed Feb 18 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 07 09:26:14 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 07 09:28:50 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 3 false false Sun Feb 22 12:22:48 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 22 12:23:00 -0800 2009 ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1974 Tue Oct 28 08:21:05 -0700 2008 Tue Oct 28 08:40:32 -0700 2008 once more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 17 22:50:32 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 19 13:25:31 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false true Mon Jul 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 12 00:10:38 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 12 00:42:57 -0700 2009
So the general premise is that the idea of a orderly progression from ignorance to knowledge in science is false. We start where people are not doing what could possibly be referred to as science. Then a paradigm is adopted which poses problems ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jun 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 16 14:57:23 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 16 14:58:25 -0700 2009
To begin with, scientific research in a specific subject is carried ...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 1989 Thu Apr 16 20:32:52 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 16 20:33:17 -0700 2009 5 1 false false Tue Jun 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue May 26 21:06:42 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 03 10:36:00 -0700 2009
Kuhn's ideas about scien...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Nov 15 00:00:00 -0800 1991 Tue Apr 14 19:23:08 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 14 20:24:16 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Tue May 05 10:53:57 -0700 2009 Tue May 05 11:00:56 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Sep 29 18:06:28 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 29 18:30:29 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Thu Feb 26 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 01 09:10:45 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 26 14:19:59 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 true false Tue Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 1983 Wed May 27 00:34:36 -0700 2009 Wed May 27 00:40:59 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jun 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 02 19:08:25 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 20:16:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Tue Nov 17 08:42:23 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 17 09:54:58 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Feb 05 20:00:11 -0800 2008 Fri Apr 04 21:07:12 -0700 2008 1 1 false false Thu Apr 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 25 07:25:33 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 23 07:35:16 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Aug 16 21:16:52 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 16 21:25:48 -0700 2008
This book gave me a new app...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=61539