Kuhn's 'Structure of Scientific Revolutions' at Fifty: Reflections on a Science Classic

Thomas S. Kuhn’s __The Structure of Scientific Revolutions__ was a watershed event when it was published in 1962, upending the previous understanding of science as a slow, logical accumulation of facts and introducing, with the concept of the “paradigm shift,” social and psychological considerations into the heart of the scientific process. More than fifty years after its publication, Kuhn’s work continues to influence thinkers in a wide range of fields, including scientists, historians, and sociologists. It is clear that __The Structure of Scientific Revolutions__ itself marks no less of a paradigm shift than those it describes. In __Kuhn’s “Structure of Scientific Revolutions” at Fifty__, leading social scientists and philosophers explore the origins of Kuhn’s masterwork and its legacy fifty years on. These essays exhume important historical context for Kuhn’s work, critically analyzing its foundations in twentieth-century science, politics, and Kuhn’s own intellectual biography: his experiences as a physics graduate student, his close relationship with psychologists before and after the publication of __Structure__, and the Cold War framework of terms such as “world view” and “paradigm.” Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions at Fifty is a collection of essay in celebration of the 50 th anniversary of the publication of Thomas Kuhn’s famous book. The essays reconstruct the evolution of Kuhn’s thought from his college years to the reception and application of his conception of paradigms. Using archival evidence, the authors assess the impact of his early training in physics, his study of philosophy and psychology, and the politics of the “Red Scare” and “the Cold War.” Among the topics of special concern are Kuhn’s “Aristotle experience,” his immersion in the practice of physics during the war, his fascination with Gestalt psychology, the origin of the very concept of paradigm, and his conception of the scientific community and the utility of that conception beyond the discipline of physics. The authors critically evaluate the applicability of Kuhn’s notions to the history of science and to more contemporary science. They ask whether the structural analysis of scientific change has given way to a more historicist approach, one that makes problematic the very notion of scientific revolution. They are attentive, as well, to the diversity of disciplines using his ideas and the longevity of those ideas in the research community. The authors form the leading edge in their disciplines of history of science, philosophy of science, and sociology of science: Andrew Abbott, Angela Creager, Lorraine Daston, Peter Galison, Daniel Garber, Ian Hacking, David Kaiser, George Reisch, and Norton Wise "Introduction -- Aristotle in the Cold War: on the origins of Thomas Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions / George A. Reisch -- A smoker's paradigm / M. Norton Wise -- Practice all the way down / Peter Galison -- Thomas Kuhn and the psychology of scientific revolutions / David Kaiser -- Paradigms / Ian Hacking -- History of science without structure / Lorraine Daston -- Why the scientific revolution wasn't a scientific revolution, and why it matters / Daniel Garber -- Paradigms and exemplars meet biomedicine / Angela N. Creager -- Structure as cited, structure as read / Andrew Abbott." -- DLC Thomas S. Kuhn's 'The Structure of Scientific Revolutions' was a watershed event when it was published in 1962, upending the previous understanding of science as a slow, logical accumulation of facts and introducing, with the concept of the 'paradigm shift, ' social and psychological considerations into the heart of the scientific process. The essays in this book exhume important historical context for Kuhn's work, critically analyzing its foundations in twentieth-century science, politics and Kuhn's own intellectual biography