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The Copernican Revolution
Thomas Kuhn's first book, "The Copernican Revolution" he studied Copernicus's heliocentric theory and how it compared to the opposing Ptolemaic theory. He argued that through accumulation of theoretical and experimental anomalies, that it can only be resolved by an intellectual revolution or later known as a paradigm shift (Britannica). -
Paradigm Shift
In 1962, Thomas Kuhn went on to publish the world renown book “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” that changed how we view science. Within his book, a paradigm is a package of ideas and methods, which, when combined, make up both a view of the world and a way of doing science (Godfrey-Smith). A paradigm shift on the other hand, is when those ideas and methods advance due to technological innovation or different logic reasoning which allows a scientist to progress a scientific field. -
Incommensurability
Kuhn wrote a thesis on Incommensurability, the idea that two paradigms can not be compared due to reasons of different language and standards that exist between them (Godfrey-Smith). Language forms a barrier between paradigms because meaning of terms used by one person, might not mean the same for another, and standards of how we conduct scientific experiments and analyze data can change. -
The Structure of Scientific Revolution
In Thomas Kuhn's book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions", he explains how science go through a cycle of normal and revolutionary science periods. Kuhn states that normal science is when there's been a continuous increase in accepted facts and theories (Casadevall). The period in which an scientific breakthrough that allows the advancement of theories and overcome anomalies is known as revolutionary science. -
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The Structure of Scientific Revolution video
