Notes for Thomas Kuhns The Structure of （指出托马斯·库恩的结构）.pdf

Notes for Thomas Kuhns The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Bryan W. Van Norden (version of February 25, 2015) Here are some hints and suggestions for better understanding chapters VI, VII and X of Thomas Kuhns The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chapter VI Summary: Anomalies disrupt normal science and therefore lead (sometimes) to the rejection of the dominant paradigm in favor a new one. When we examine this process historically, we see that there is no way to sharply distinguish between observable facts and the theory that interprets them. Both normal science and paradigms have been discussed in previous chapters. (Kuhn is, in fact, responsible for making the word paradigm such a common term in contemporary English.) But Kuhn actually gives his clearest exposition of what he means by a scientific paradigm in the Postscript to the book, p. 175. There, he says that he uses paradigm primarily to mean two things: (1) the complete WORLDVIEW of a particular community, and (2) an AUTHORITATIVE EXAMPLE of how to do science. Normal science is science conducted by a community which has an accepted paradigm (in both senses). So normal science is science conducted when scientists agree, in broad outlines, about the way the world is and agree about what good examples of proper scientific research are. Normal science is contrasted with science during periods of scientific revolution, when there is disagreement about both the way the world is and what successful examples of research are. For example, we are currently in a period of normal science in astronomy, but the period of Galileos life was a period of revolution, when the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic paradigm was collapsing, and the Copernican-Galilean paradigm was gaining adherents. Anomalies are things that, at the least, are not explained by the contemporary paradigm, and may even seem to be inconsistent with th