For our 10th anniversary episode, we selected a modern classic that greatly informs science and research across many disciplines, including organization studies. Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is a book often assigned to rising graduate students as a primer for entering the sciences. A culmination of Kuhn’s earlier works on the philosophy and history of science, Scientific Revolutions challenges the notion that science progresses along a predictable or linear path where discoveries are made at readily identified and verifiable times and the academic community embraces these advancements largely as they come.
He shows that in reality progress is more punctuated, marked by small refinements within an established paradigm until the theories and models are found to have limitations or cannot explain some sort of novel finding. Rather than the theories and models adjusting, Kuhn shows that these anomalies, as he calls it, are often overlooked or set aside until further research accumulates that make these anomalies impossible to ignore or until a new theory is proposed that challenges and threatens to replace the paradigm. This process is highly disruptive as it calls into question not only the previously accepted theory but also all the research findings that the theory explained. In Kuhn’s view, a successful revolutions must see the old theory discredited and abandoned to some extent – even an integrated paradigm that invokes both new and old ideas must result in the displacement of the old paradigm standing alone.
As an introductory or foundational book, Scientific Revolutions is very useful. Students entering scientific fields are likely interested in pursing groundbreaking or relevant work, but may not fully understand that most research is constrained to a particular paradigm – a set of theories with a unique language and a dedicated yet semi-isolated community of like-minded or like-interested professionals. Kuhn’s portrayal of normal science is commensurate with many of our personal experiences – that the paradigm and the community (as colleagues, conference organizers, peer reviewers, editors, and so on) defines what is a valid research question and what constitutes a useful or interesting finding. Normal science by its nature does not naturally engender breakthroughs.
Although considered a classic, there is room for debating how well Kuhn’s concepts apply in the present day. His essay uses examples mostly from the natural sciences, and his concepts appear to apply to the social sciences as well. However, as we discuss in this episode, the structures of paradigms and the interrelationships among communities do appear to have some important differences. Also, in Kuhn’s time, science was generally seen to be a good thing and scientific progress translated into benefits for society writ large. Sixty-plus years later, science and scientists are not necessarily as highly regarded. What might that mean for the future of science?
You may also download the audio files here: 10th Anniversary Special | Part 1 | Part 2 | Supplement
Read with us:
Kuhn, Thomas S. (2012/1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. 50th anniversary edition. University of Chicago Press.
To know more:
Davis, M. S. (1971). That’s interesting! Towards a phenomenology of sociology and a sociology of phenomenology. Philosophy of the social sciences, 1(2), 309-344.