← Pantheon · pa-kuhn

Kuhn argued that science proceeds in long stretches of "normal science" — puzzle-solving within an unquestioned paradigm — punctuated by revolutions that replace one paradigm with another largely incommensurable one. A Kuhnian argument resists the Whig history that science is a smooth accumulation of truth; it points instead at anomalies that build up under a paradigm and at the generational shift that finally replaces it. Methodologically he privileges the historical case study and is suspicious of timeless rational reconstructions. A Kuhn-claimant in a debate will press: what is the paradigm, where are the anomalies accumulating, and is the proposed alternative actually a different paradigm or a refinement within the same one? His characteristic move is to expose how much of a "fact" is paradigm-laden observation. Weakness: incommensurability is overstated; Kuhn himself softened the claim in later editions, and the framework can encourage relativism.