Normal Science Does Not Aim At Novelties

Far From Being Magisterial In Its Objectivity, Science Was Conditioned By History, Society, And The Prejudices Of Scientists.

"normal Science" Means Research Firmly Based Upon One Or More Past Scientific Achievements, Achievements That Some Particular Scientific Community Acknowledges For A Time As Supplying The Foundation For Its Further Practice.

Later Scientific Theories Are Better Than Earlier Ones For Solving Puzzles In The Often Quite Different Environments To Which They Are Applied. That Is Not A Relativist's Position, And It Displays The Sense In Which I Am A Convinced Believer In Scientific Progress.

The Man Who Is Striving To Solve A Problem Defined By Existing Knowledge And Technique Is Not, However, Just Looking Around. He Knows What He Wants To Achieve, And He Designs His Instruments And Directs His Thoughts Accordingly. Unanticipated Novelty, The New Discovery, Can Emerge Only To The Extent That His Anticipations About Nature And His Instruments Prove Wrong... There Is No Other Effective Way In Which Discoveries Might Be Generated.

Almost Always The Men Who Achieve These Fundamental Inventions Of A New Paradigm Have Been Either Very Young Or Very New To The Field Whose Paradigm They Change.