The Life Cycle of Scientific Specialties

Abstract

In some applications of the paradigm concept, the difference between implicit knowledge and expectations on the one hand and explicit and established knowledge on the other, is accounted for in terms of a trade off relation maintained over the paradigm life cycle. In its initial phase the paradigm is a promising source of ideas evoking possible investigations and generating expectations about their outcome. As the suggested research is gradually realized and solid data are assembled, the knowledge involved gradually becomes more articulated and the share of programmatic principles diminishes. Finally, the suggestive power of the paradigm seems used up and the scientific community is left with a more or less stabilized body of knowledge which can either be added to the store of certified knowledge or classified as a dead end. Viewed on the level of specialties, in Yellin’s (1972) terminology, the specialty enters the ‘post developed state’.

Steady advance implies exact determination of every previous step. — Sarton, G., 1962, p. 66.¹