The Structure of Scientific Revolutions：Thomas‧Kuhn

　　I think Thomas‧Kuhn(1922-1996) may be the greatest scientific philosopher that I have ever known. His book《The Structure of Scientific Revolutions》(科學革命的結構)has been honored as the most influential book in post-20^th century.(I have a Chinese translation edition!)

 

                                            

　　The core of his theory is that he divide the development of science into three parts：Normal Science(常態科學)、Scientific Crisis(科學危機) and Scientific Revolution(科學革命).

            Normal Science→Scientific Crisis→Scientific Revolution→New Normal Science

　　In the period of Normal Science, paradigm(典範) was the highest guide of science and scientists. Scientists would not suspect whether the paradigm was correct or not. They were solving puzzles(解謎) under the guide of paradigm.The puzzles were provided by the paradigm.

　　Sometimes, some puzzles couldn’t be solved for a long time. Therefore, they became anomalies(異例) to that paradigm. They were crisises for the paradigm. Scientist

may want to seek new paradigms. A lot of new paradigms had been issued and compete with the original paradigm. If new paradigm replace old paradigm,this was called paradigm shift(典範轉移). The Scientific Revolution was completed and New Normal Science began.

　　Take Mechanics and Astronomy for examples as below：

   Aristotle’s Mechanics(亞里斯多德力學)→Descartes and Galileo(笛卡兒與伽利略)→Newton’s              Mechanics→Crisis Of Mechanics→Relativistic Mechanics(相對論性力學)

   Ptolemy’s Geocentric model(托勒密地心說)→Copernicus’s Heliocentrism(哥白尼日心說)→Newton’s    Theory→Relativistic Astronomy