Crisis & Anomalies
The stage when scientists begin noticing repeated problems their current theory cannot explain.
What is a crisis?
Kuhn’s term for when two scientific theories cannot be directly compared using the same standards.
What is incommensurability?
Kuhn compares paradigm shifts to this visual illusion, where the same image suddenly appears different.
What is a Gestalt switch?
After revolutions, textbooks often present science as as this.
What is a steady and continuous process? / Smooth, step-by-step accuumulation of knowledge.
According to Kuhn, each scientific framework defines its own version of this.
What is progress?
Kuhn says problems only lead to major change when they do this to scientists’ trust in a theory.
What is undermine confidence in the theory?
Competing paradigms differ not just in answers, but in what counts as a valid question, method, or explanation.
What is they use different rules for doing science?
After a scientific revolution, Kuhn says scientists don’t just change ideas; they actually see this differently.
What is the world (or what are they studying)?
Older theories are often rewritten so they appear to lead directly to current ones.
What is simplifying or reshaping past ideas to fit the present?
A major shift where one scientific framework replaces another.
What is a paradigm shift?
Even when problems appear, scientists usually keep working within the same framework instead of abandoning it.
What is continuing to use the existing paradigm?
Because paradigms follow different rules, scientists choosing between them do not have this.
What is a shared or neutral way to compare them?
According to Kuhn, what scientists observe is shaped by this.
What is the theories or beliefs they already hold?
Presenting past scientists as if they were working toward modern ideas is an example of this.
What is rewriting history to make progress look smooth?
Kuhn challenges the idea that science is always getting closer to this single final goal.
What is absolute or objective truth?
One response to persistent problems is to treat them as temporarily unsolvable rather than rejecting the theory.
What is setting the problem aside for later?
Kuhn argues that scientists using different paradigms may look at the same data but understand it differently because of this.
What is their underlying assumptions or framework?
Paradigms influence what scientists pay attention to, meaning they help determine this.
What is what counts as important data or evidence?
By teaching only the current framework, textbooks help reinforce this among new scientists.
What is the acceptance of the current paradigm?
Instead of steady improvement, Kuhn describes science as developing through this kind of pattern.
What is a series of revolutions?
Kuhn argues that major new theories come from this phase, not from routine research.
What is a crisis?
A specific example of a historical shift Kuhn uses that shows how a new paradigm can redefine motion, force, and what questions matter. (HINT: INVOLVES ARISTOTLE)
What is the shift from Aristotelian physics to Newtonian physics?
When Kuhn says scientists “work in a different world” after a revolution, he means this kind of change.
What is a change in how they interpret and understand reality?
Kuhn argues that textbooks hide this important feature of science.
What is that science changes through major revolutions?
Because each paradigm has its own standards, what counts as “better” depends on this.
What is the framework or paradigm being used?