 the structure of scientific revolutions is a 1962 book about the history of science by thomas s. kuhn. its publication was a landmark event in the history, philosophy, and sociology of scientific knowledge and triggered an ongoing worldwide assessment and reaction inâand beyondâthose scholarly communities. kuhn challenged the then prevailing view of progress in "normal science." normal scientific progress was viewed as "development-by-accumulation" of accepted facts and theories. kuhn argued for an episodic model in which periods of such conceptual continuity in normal science were interrupted by periods of revolutionary science. the discovery of "anomalies" during revolutions in science leads to new paradigms. new paradigms then ask new questions of old data, move beyond the mere "puzzle-solving" of the previous paradigm, change the rules of the game and the "map" directing new research.kuhn, thomas s. the structure of scientific revolutions. 3rd ed. chicago, il: university of chicago press, 1996. asking new questions of old data on pages 139, 159. moving beyond "puzzle-solving" on pages 37, 144. change in rule sets on pages 40, 41, 52, 175. change in the direction or "map" of research on pages 109, 111. for example, kuhn's analysis of the copernican revolution emphasized that, in its beginning, it did not offer more accurate predictions of celestial events, such as planetary positions, than the ptolemaic system, but instead appealed to some practitioners based on a promise of better, simpler, solutions that might be developed at some point in the future. kuhn called the core concepts of an ascendant revolution its "paradigms" and thereby launched this word into widespread analogical use in the second half of the 20th century. kuhn's insistence that a paradigm shift was a mÃ©lange of sociology, enthusiasm and scientific promise, but not a logically determinate procedure, caused an uproar in reaction to his work. kuhn addressed concerns in the 1969 postscript to the second edition. for some commentators it introduced a realistic humanism into the core of science while for others the 
1962_books Books_about_the_history_of_science English-language_books Philosophy_of_science_literature Science_studies Scientific_revolution University_of_Chicago_Press_books