Kuhn's Theory of Scientific Revolution

Thomas Kuhn's theory of scientific revolution encompasses a repetitive and ongoing cyclical process that involves three stages: normal science; crisis; and scientific revolution. It is during the stage of normal science that scientists work from paradigms, a generally accepted framework, theory, or way of doing things within a particular discipline. This stage equates to a period of relative stability during which scientists use accepted paradigms while continuing to search for anomalies or crises that contradict these paradigms. When experimentation reveals new findings that are anomalous or contradict accepted paradigms, the stage of crisis occurs. This leads to scientific revolution during which additional experimentation reveals new paradigms whose acceptance leads to a new phase of normal science. As Kuhn (1970) argues in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, "paradigms are not corrigible by normal science at all�normal science ultimately leads only to the recognition of anomalies and crises" (p. 122). The process of scientific revolution described by Kuhn results in greater insights and understanding in science that provide scientists with a new way of viewing or doing things. This analysis will discuss a number of Web sites that either support or refute Kuhn's theory of scientific revolution.

Throughout history, scientific revolutions have occurred that bear out Kuhn's theory. In physics, the revolutions associated with Coper

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ink as independently as many individuals think they do. They are just as subject to bias, pedagogy, funding limitations and other factors associated with scientific research that can hamper or limit their exploration outside of established paradigms. Instead of seeking new ways of doing or viewing things, scientists often try to solve problems based on existing knowledge and techniques. However, Arthur M. Young (1996) questions Kuhn's theory of paradigm shifts, arguing instead that the scientific revolutions associated with Copernicus, Galileo, or Newton did not represent new paradigms but were "rather the beginning of Western science, with an emphasis on experiment and fact as the basis for theory, instead of authority" (p. 1). Kuhn does not argue that new paradigms resolve questions of science any more than their predecessors, however. Instead, he maintains in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions that all paradigms have strengths and weaknesses, which is why their existence is often temporary until they are replaced by paradigms whose strengths are greater than their own. Nevertheless, the new paradigms that replace them cannot be viewed as a panacea answer for the problem they aim to resolve. As Kuhn noted, "each parad

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