There's a "Frank & Ernest" comic strip showing a chick breaking out of its shell, looking around, and saying, "Oh, wow! Paradigm shift!" Blame the late Thomas Kuhn. Few indeed are the philosophers or historians influential enough to make it into the funny papers, but Kuhn is one.The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is indeed a paradigmatic work in the history of science. Kuhn's use of terms such as "paradigm shift" and "normal science," his ideas of how scientists move from disdain through doubt to acceptance of a new theory, his stress on social and psychological factors in science--all have had profound effects on historians, scientists, philosophers, critics, writers, business gurus, and even the cartoonist in the street. Some scientists (such as Steven Weinberg and Ernst Mayr) are profoundly irritated by Kuhn, especially by the doubts he casts--or the way his work has been used to cast doubt--on the idea of scientific progress. Yet it has been said that the acceptance of plate tectonics in the 1960s, for instance, was sped by geologists' reluctance to be on the downside of a paradigm shift. Even Weinberg has said that "Structure has had a wider influence than any other book on the history of science." As one of Kuhn's obituaries noted, "We all live in a post-Kuhnian age." --Mary Ellen Curtin

Posted by Eitch

Thomas S. Kuhn, physicien, historien et philosophe des sciences, enseigne au M.I.T. Dans ce livre c�l�bre, dont il a revu et corrig� la traduction pour cette �dition, il a voulu former une nouvelle image de la science, comprise � partir de son histoire r�elle. Il met ainsi l'accent sur les bouleversements de la pens�e scientifique (Copernic, Newton, Lavoisier, Einstein...), et �tudie ces moments de crise que traverse la science au cours de son �volution : il y a r�volution scientifique lorsqu'une th�orie scientifique consacr�e par le temps est rejet�e au profit d'une nouvelle th�orie. Cette substitution am�ne g�n�ralement un d�placement des probl�mes offerts � la recherche et des crit�res selon lesquels les sp�cialistes d�cident de ce qui doit compter comme probl�me ou solution. Que toute r�volution scientifique soit un facteur de progr�s, c'est ce que d�montre l'auteur apr�s avoir signal� les conditions requises pour l'apparition d'une telle crise. Chacune de ces r�volutions, en fin de compte, transforme non seulement l'imagination scientifique mais aussi le monde dans lequel s'effectue ce travail scientifique.

Posted by Eitch