What is the concept of PARADIGM by Thomas KUHN

In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to talk about Thomas Kuhn's paradigm concept. The various theories that exist about what is the process of the advance of science, we find that Kuhn's thought tries to improve and correct the thinking of Karl Popper.

Karl Popper spoke to us of falsification as a method to get to know the advance of the science, since what science did was advance not affirming true things, but rejecting things false. According to Thomas Kuhn there is the concept of paradigm: a unitary concept that encompasses everything that is known on a certain moment. Each historical epoch has its paradigm.

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Index

1. Summary of Kuhn's paradigm concept
2. What is the scientific paradigm according to Kuhn?
3. Phases of scientific development according to Kuhn
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4. Kuhn's new science
5. Kuhn's model of scientific development
6. Khun's most important works

In this lesson you will know the Thomas Kuhn's paradigm concept, physicist and philosopher of science, as well as historian, who contributed enormously to the change of direction experienced by philosophy during the 60s.

In one of the most representative works of him, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions), exposes the development of the natural sciences, offering a very different image to the one they had at the time.

According to the American philosopher, science does not evolve following the same process from the application of the scientific method. The scientific community, by consensus, offers universal answers or paradigms.

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Thomas Kuhn offers a new definition of paradigm, now considered as the series of practices of a discipline during a determined time.

“I consider paradigms as universally recognized scientific achievements that, for a certain time, they provide models of problems and solutions to a scientific community ”, affirmed the philosopher and scientific.

Normal science investigates three things mainly:

1. The truly revealing facts about origin, according to the paradigm
2. The experiments that validate the theory
3. Collection of facts from normal science and ambiguities

“Paradigms get their status as such, because they are more successful than their competitors to solve a few problems that the professional group has come to recognize as treble. However, being more successful does not mean that you are completely successful in solving a problem. determined problem or that of sufficiently satisfactory results with a considerable number of problems"

Faced with the prevailing formalist model, Khun proposes a historicist model, by virtue of which, the evolution of the sciences passes through the next phases:

1. Establishment of a paradigm
2. Normal science
3. Crisis
4. Scientific revolution
5. Establishment of a new paradigm

Science is the result of a set of events that have taken place throughout history, whether they have been successful or not. Each of the scientific methods and theories have contributed to raise the building of knowledge. The historian's mission is, therefore, to contextualize each of the events, on the one hand, and on the other to determine which errors or prejudices have made the accumulation of data difficult.

A scientific revolution consists of substitution of an old paradigm for a new and incompatible one with it, because the one that existed, no longer works.

The normal story, says Khun, is nothing more than an accumulation of data and this constitutes the main error and causes a de-virtualized image of it.

"If history is considered as something more than a repository of anecdotes or chronology, it can produce a decisive transformation of the image we currently have of science"

All scientific theories, even those that have become obsolete, have been overwhelmingly logical at the time, and have contributed to advancement in the scientific field. And the history of science is not a collection of data, otherwise paradigm shifts over time. This paradigm shift also causes historical revolutions.

What's more, scientific research is affected by personal circumstances of the observer, from his education to his particular perspective on the matter to be studied.

But normal science tries to mold its theories to those of its model, thus simplifying the investigation. And these irregularities are precisely what the new science tries to explain. Exchanging an old theory for a new one, in addition to offering a new explanation of reality, involves redeveloping new theories, a new point of view about phenomena. This takes a lot of work and effort, and also requires the collaboration of a group of researchers.

1. Immature science: precedes normal science and lacks paradigmatic unity
2. Normal science: investigates ancient and recognized theories by the scientific community, to inform practice.
3. Scientific crisis: result of the irregularities of the scientific model of normal science.
4. Scientific revolution: caused by a new paradigm that comes to replace the previous one, because it no longer works. It is time to explore new theories.
5. Extraordinary science: starts from the anomalies arising from the current paradigm, which causes a crisis and the development of new paradigms, which more Later, the scientific community will reduce, by consensus, to a single one, which supposes the beginning of normal science and a new repetition of the cycle.

We end this lesson on Khun's concept of paradigm to mention the essential works of this philosopher from the United States. The most notorious books of his career are as follows:

• The Copernican revolution (1957).
• The Role of Dogma in Scientific Research (1961).
• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962).
• Second thoughts on paradigms (1970).
• The essential tension (1977).
• The black body theory and quantum discontinuity (1987).

If you want to read more articles similar to Thomas Kuhn's concept of paradigm, we recommend that you enter our category of Philosophy.

• Kuhn, T. S. (2019). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Fund of Economic Culture.
• Bird, A. (2014). Thomas Kuhn. Routledge.
• Lakatos, I., Feigl, H., Hall, R. J., Koertge, N., & Kuhn, T. S. (1982). History of science and its rational reconstructions (pp. 9-73). Madrid: Tecnos.