The Crises Of Our Time, It Becomes

It Is, I Think, Particularly In Periods Of Acknowledged Crisis That Scientists Have Turned To Philosophical Analysis As A Device For Unlocking The Riddles Of Their Field. Scientists Have Not Generally Needed Or Wanted To Be Philosophers.

To Turn Karl [popper]'s View On Its Head, It Is Precisely The Abandonment Of Critical Discourse That Marks The Transition Of Science. Once A Field Has Made The Transition, Critical Discourse Recurs Only At Moments Of Crisis When The Bases Of The Field Are Again In Jeopardy. Only When They Must Choose Between Competing Theories Do Scientists Behave Like Philosophers.

Each Paradigm Will Be Shown To Satisfy More Or Less The Criteria That It Dictates For Itself And To Fall Short Of A Few Of Those Dictated By Its Opponent.

"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.

Groups Do Not Have Experiences Except Insofar As All Their Members Do. And There Are No Experiences... That All The Members Of A Scientific Community Must Share In The Course Of A [scientific] Revolution. Revolutions Should Be Described Not In Terms Of Group Experience But In Terms Of The Varied Experiences Of Individual Group Members. Indeed, That Variety Itself Turns Out To Play An Essential Role In The Evolution Of Scientific Knowledge.