Thomas Khun and Paradigm

Thomas Kuhn is an American physicist, historian, and philosopher of science. He brought a completely different perspective to the philosophy of science by publishing his most important work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, in 1962. Known for his opposition to positivist thought, Kuhn talks about paradigms and the concept of a paradigm shift in this book he published. Kuhn has used the concept of paradigm quite frequently and in ways that have different meanings. He argued that scientific paradigms are embedded in "social acceptance" and social relations, that rules are shaped according to paradigms, and that people always live their lives according to these paradigms. In addition, the paradigm is the first example of an idea that dominates acceptance in a certain period. It contains long experience and evidence. In other words, a paradigm is a reflection of the general approval (generally accepted) assumption of an idea, and this presents the answers to many questions with it. In an example given in Kuhn's book, a physicist and a chemist were asked whether the helium atom should be considered a molecule. Physicists and chemists gave two different scientific explanations.

According to Kuhn, scientific fields are affected by paradigm shifts periodically rather than developing linearly and continuously, and these paradigm shifts cause a new understanding to emerge against the arguments that scientists did not accept as valid before. For this reason, the concept of scientific truth cannot be determined at any time only by the criterion of impartiality; The consensus of the scientific community is equally valuable in establishing scientific truth. Competing paradigms are often incomparable because they are competing and irreconcilable explanations of reality. For this reason, our understanding of science can never be entirely based on the concept of objectivity. Science must also take subjective perspectives into account, as all objective inferences are ultimately influenced by the subjective worldviews and conditionings of the researchers and participants who make them.

Kuhn identifies three sequential phases of the scientific work environment. In the first phase, which he calls the pre-paradigm, there is no consensus on a specific theory, even though scientific research is being carried out. Typical of this phase is the coexistence of various discordant and incomplete theories. If the players of the scientific community gradually turn to one of these conceptual frameworks and broad agreement is reached on scientific methods, terminology, and types of experiments, the second phase, normal science, begins. The characteristic of this phase is to solve a problem or, in a sense, a puzzle within the scope of the dominant paradigm. These scientists embark on what Kuhn calls revolutionary science, and so science enters the third phase. In this phase, which can also be called the scientific revolution, trust in the old paradigm is shaken, the underlying assumptions are revised, and a new paradigm gains credibility over time.

We can also explain the paradigm shift event with a cycle called The Kuhn Cycle. He states that this cycle starts with pre-science, followed by normal science, model drift, model crisis, model revolution, and finally paradigm change. However, the cycle does not end like this, and with each new paradigm, it ends another paradigm and continues the cycle that starts with the normal science phase.