Thomas Kuhn (1922–96) argued that indeed they can. ‘Normal’ science proceeds in the light of a set of paradigms, or implied views about what kind of explanations we should hope for. Periods of revolutionary science occur when the paradigms are themselves challenged. Science is to be seen as ‘a series of peaceful interludes punctuated by intellectually violent revolutions’. After the revolutions, our sense of what makes for a comfortable explanation of why things hang together changes.
