Thomas Kuhn was a theoretical physicist before he became a historian. He saw the history of science through the eyes of a theorist. He gave us an accurate view of events in the world of ideas. His favorite word, paradigm, means a system of ideas that dominate the science of a particular place and time. A scientific revolution is a discontinuous shift from one paradigm to another. The shift happens suddenly because new ideas explode with a barrage of new insights and new questions that push old ideas into oblivion. I remember the joy of reading Kuhn's book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, when it first appeared in 1962. It made sense of the relativity and quantum revolutions that had happened just before the theoretical physicists of my generation were born. Those were revolutions led by deep thinkers---Einstein and Heisenberg and Schrödinger and Dirac---who guessed nature's secrets by dreaming dreams of mathematical beauty. Their new paradigms were created out of abstract ideas. In those revolutionary years from 1900 to 1930, ideas led the way to understanding.
...More
Article
Gordin, Michael D.;
Milam, Erika Lorraine;
(2012)
A Repository for More than Anecdote: Fifty Years of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
(/isis/citation/CBB001252330/)
Book
Kindi, Vasso P.;
Arabatzis, Theodore;
(2012)
Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Revisited
(/isis/citation/CBB001421709/)
Article
Pyenson, Lewis;
(2013)
The Einstein-Picasso Question: Neo-Idealist Abstraction in the Decorative Arts and Manufactures
(/isis/citation/CBB001212588/)
Article
Seth, Suman;
(2007)
Crisis and the Construction of Modern Theoretical Physics
(/isis/citation/CBB000771300/)
Chapter
Antonino Drago;
(2009)
Rivisitando la storia del corpo nero: la falsa coscienza dei fisici
(/isis/citation/CBB281610621/)
Article
Stöltzner, Michael;
(2009)
Gangarten des Rationalen. Zu den Zeitstrukturen der Quantenrevolution
(/isis/citation/CBB000932098/)
Book
Andersen, Hanne;
Barker, Peter;
Chen, Xiang;
(2006)
The Cognitive Structure of Scientific Revolutions
(/isis/citation/CBB000640006/)
Article
George Borg;
(2020)
On 'the application of science to science itself:' Chemistry, instruments, and the scientific labor process
(/isis/citation/CBB166777080/)
Article
Sturm, Thomas;
Mülberger, Annette;
(2012)
Crisis Discussions in Psychology---New Historical and Philosophical Perspectives
(/isis/citation/CBB001221625/)
Chapter
Silvan S. Schweber;
(2016)
On Kuhnian and Hacking-Type Revolutions
(/isis/citation/CBB746468868/)
Thesis
Yohe, James Dale;
(2006)
A Reexamination of The Structure of Scientific Revolution and Application: The Rise of Mathematical Economics
(/isis/citation/CBB001561622/)
Article
Dear, Peter;
(2012)
Fifty years of Structure
(/isis/citation/CBB001250750/)
Book
Alexander Blum;
(2016)
Shifting Paradigms: Thomas S. Kuhn and the History of Science
(/isis/citation/CBB226022591/)
Article
Ruse, Michael;
(2014)
Was There a Darwinian Revolution? Yes, No, and Maybe!
(/isis/citation/CBB001500023/)
Book
Badino, Massimiliano;
(2010)
Il professore e il suo demone: La lunga lotta di Max Planck contro la statistica (1896--1906)
(/isis/citation/CBB001252424/)
Article
Radin Dardashti;
(2021)
No-go Theorems: What Are They Good For?
(/isis/citation/CBB827243285/)
Book
Galina Weinstein;
(2015)
Einstein's Pathway to the Special Theory of Relativity
(/isis/citation/CBB495363061/)
Article
Dongen, Jeroen van;
(2007)
Reactionaries and Einstein's Fame: “German Scientists for the Preservation of Pure Science,” Relativity, and the Bad Nauheim Meeting
(/isis/citation/CBB000780203/)
Chapter
Barker, Peter;
(2001)
Incommensurability and conceptual change during the Copernican Revolution
(/isis/citation/CBB000102728/)
Article
Sturm, Thomas;
(2012)
Bühler and Popper: Kantian Therapies for the Crisis in Psychology
(/isis/citation/CBB001221629/)
Be the first to comment!