MTU Cork Library Catalogue

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The structure of scientific revolutions / Thomas S. Kuhn.

By: Kuhn, Thomas S.
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookPublisher: Chicago, IL : University of Chicago Press, 1996Edition: 3rd ed.Description: xiv, 212 p. ; 22 cm. + pbk.ISBN: 0226458075; 0226458083.Subject(s): Science -- Philosophy | Science -- HistoryDDC classification: 501
Contents:
Introduction: a role for history -- The route to normal science -- The nature of normal science -- Normal science as puzzle-solving -- The priority of paradigms -- Anomaly and the emergence of scientific discoveries -- Crisis and the emergence of scientific theories -- The response to crisis -- The nature and necessity of scientific revolutions -- Revolutions as changes of world view -- The invisibility of world revolutions -- The resolutions of revolutions -- Progress through revolutions.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
General Lending MTU Bishopstown Library Lending 501 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 00075003
General Lending MTU Bishopstown Library Store Item 501 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 00075002
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"A landmark in intellectual history which has attracted attention far beyond its own immediate field. . . . It is written with a combination of depth and clarity that make it an almost unbroken series of aphorisms. . . . Kuhn does not permit truth to be a criterion of scientific theories, he would presumably not claim his own theory to be true. But if causing a revolution is the hallmark of a superior paradigm, [this book] has been a resounding success." --Nicholas Wade, Science "Perhaps the best explanation of [the] process of discovery." --William Erwin Thompson, New York Times Book Review "Occasionally there emerges a book which has an influence far beyond its originally intended audience. . . . Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions . . . has clearly emerged as just such a work." --Ron Johnston, Times Higher Education Supplement "Among the most influential academic books in this century." -- Choice One of "The Hundred Most Influential Books Since the Second World War," Times Literary Supplement

Previous ed.: 1970.
Includes index.

Introduction: a role for history -- The route to normal science -- The nature of normal science -- Normal science as puzzle-solving -- The priority of paradigms -- Anomaly and the emergence of scientific discoveries -- Crisis and the emergence of scientific theories -- The response to crisis -- The nature and necessity of scientific revolutions -- Revolutions as changes of world view -- The invisibility of world revolutions -- The resolutions of revolutions -- Progress through revolutions.

CIT Module CHEM 8008 - Supplementary reading

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • Preface (p. vii)
  • I. Introduction: A Role for History (p. 1)
  • II. The Route to Normal Science (p. 10)
  • III. The Nature of Normal Science (p. 23)
  • IV. Normal Science as Puzzle-solving (p. 35)
  • V. The Priority of Paradigms (p. 43)
  • VI. Anomaly and the Emergence of Scientific Discoveries (p. 52)
  • VII. Crisis and the Emergence of Scientific Theories (p. 66)
  • VIII. The Response to Crisis (p. 77)
  • IX. The Nature and Necessity of Scientific Revolutions (p. 92)
  • X. Revolutions as Changes of World View (p. 111)
  • XI. The Invisibility of Revolutions (p. 136)
  • XII. The Resolutions of Revolutions (p. 144)
  • XIII. Progress through Revolutions (p. 160)
  • Postscript-1969 (p. 174)
  • Index (p. 211)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Thomas S. Kuhn's work is best described as a normative historiography of science. He was educated at Harvard University, where in 1949 he completed a doctorate in physics. As a student, he was impressed by the differences between scientific method, as conventionally taught, and the way science actually works. Before moving to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979, he taught at Harvard University, the University of California at Berkeley, and Princeton University.

Kuhn's most celebrated contribution to the philosophy of science is his controversial idea of paradigms and paradigm shifts. A paradigm is understood as a widely shared theoretical framework within which scientific research is conducted. According to Kuhn, science normally develops more or less smoothly within such a paradigm until an accumulation of difficulties reduces its effectiveness. The paradigm finally breaks down in a crisis, which is followed by the formation of a radically new paradigm in a so-called scientific revolution. The new paradigm is accepted, even though it might neither resolve all of the accumulated difficulties nor explain the data better than the older paradigm that it replaces. We find examples of paradigm shifts in the work of Copernicus, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and others. Since its original publication in 1962, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions undoubtedly has been the single most influential book in the philosophy of science.

(Bowker Author Biography)

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