

This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "The Structure Of Scientific Revolutions" by Thomas Kuhn. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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How does Kuhn explain a scientific revolution? What spurs a revolution into motion and how do we know that a scientific discipline has been revolutionized?
According to Thomas Kuhn, a scientific revolution happens when new discoveries do not fit into the existing scientific frameworks. When that happens, scientists have to break with traditional knowledge and start looking for a new model that fits this new information.
Read more about Thomas Kuhn’s scientific revolution theory.
Thomas Kuhn: Scientific Revolution
The word “revolution” is usually used in a historical context, not a scientific one. However, there are many parallels that make the term appropriate here. First of all, revolutions start with a growing feeling that the current systems aren’t working. This is often because they’re failing to solve problems they helped to create.
Revolutions, whether political or scientific, try to overthrow the current establishment and put a new one in its place. The community is inevitably divided into those defending the status quo and those fighting against it.
Once that division happens, there is no political solution. The people can’t even agree on what type of political (or in this case, scientific) framework should be in place to make that solution happen. It’s impossible to resolve the conflict by the usual methods, because those are set by the current paradigm, and it’s the paradigm itself that’s under attack. The only thing that’s clear to all sides is that the competing paradigms can’t coexist. Finally, the opposing parties use whatever means they can to get popular opinion on their own side, including force if needed.

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- How scientific paradigms evolve and become replaced with new paradigms
- Why science is more about figuring out what isn't right
- How throwing out past achievements allows for scientific progress