The Paradigm Concept

Abstract

Since its publication in 1962, Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions has become one of the most popular attempts of all time to interpret the nature of science. It has proved an important step in a movement away from the positivistic empiricism that has held sway, among both philosophers and working scientists, for well over two generations. Writers in many disciplines have adopted the book’s fundamental notion of “paradigm” in analyses of their subject matter and controversies. The book has had an impact also on a wide body of laymen, even, on occasion, being cited as authority by spokesmen of the New Left.

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. THOMAS S. KUHN. Second edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1970. xii, 210 pp. Cloth, $6; paper, $1.50. International Encyclopedia of Unified Science, vol. 2, No. 2.

Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Proceedings of the International Colloquium on the Philosophy of Science, London, July 1965, vol. 4. IMRE LAKATOS and ALAN MUSGRAVE, Eds. Cambridge University Press, New York, 1970. viii, 282 pp. Cloth, $11.50; paper, $3.45.