{"id":25300,"date":"2021-02-01T09:46:34","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T13:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=25300"},"modified":"2021-02-02T22:33:50","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T02:33:50","slug":"thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Kuhn: Paradigm Shift Is an Ongoing Process"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is the Thomas Kuhn paradigm shift<\/a> theory? What are the processes that make scientists revise their existing frameworks and make a paradigm shift?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Thomas Kuhn paradigm shift theory, when scientists make a discovery that doesn’t fit into any of the existing models, there’s a shift. Establishing a new paradigm is what cements a field of study as a science. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read on to learn about Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm shift theory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Thomas Kuhn: Paradigm Shift<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to Thomas Kuhn, a paradigm shift begins when scientists find an anomaly that can’t be hidden or fit into the current model. This could be a new theory that doesn\u2019t match the current paradigm, or simply an observation that doesn\u2019t line up with what was expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When that happens, scientists have to break with traditional knowledge and start looking for a new model that fits this new information. That\u2019s the beginning of a scientific revolution\u2014but to truly deserve that name, the new model has to have big implications.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, when the movements of planets and moons couldn\u2019t be resolved with the old Earth-centric model of the solar system, scientists of the day had to discard and replace it with the current sun-centered model. Therefore, the new heliocentric model didn\u2019t just mean that scientists had made a mistake before, it meant they had to completely reevaluate how planets move and why. It was as if the scientists had to work in a totally new world with different natural laws. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because a new model throws a lot of old work into question, scientists will often resist these revolutions at first. This is why it\u2019s so hard for historians to pinpoint when a paradigm shift has happened: it was and is an ongoing process<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Initial Paradigms Develop<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It shouldn\u2019t be surprising that science performed without a paradigm leads to a lot of different schools of thought. In fact, it might be more surprising that those discrepancies usually disappear.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This usually happens because one school of thought becomes prominent over the others. That prominent paradigm will attract the next generation of scientists, and other schools of thought will die out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, early electricians (in the scientific sense, not the modern sense) came to their first paradigm because a scientist who thought electricity was a liquid tried to capture some in a jar and created the Leyden jar, a primitive battery. What he learned from that experiment formed the basis of the most convincing arguments of the time, which eventually led to his school of thought becoming the paradigm of the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it\u2019s important to note that even though electricity-as-liquid was the dominant argument of the time, it couldn\u2019t answer every question about electricity. Paradigms must be more convincing than competing ideas, but they don\u2019t need to explain everything. In fact, those unanswered questions are what make normal science<\/a> possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is the Thomas Kuhn paradigm shift theory? What are the processes that make scientists revise their existing frameworks and make a paradigm shift? According to the Thomas Kuhn paradigm shift theory, when scientists make a discovery that doesn’t fit into any of the existing models, there’s a shift. Establishing a new paradigm is what cements a field of study as a science. Read on to learn about Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm shift theory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":25308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,24],"tags":[198],"class_list":["post-25300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-society","tag-the-structure-of-scientific-revolutions","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nThomas Kuhn: Paradigm Shift Is an Ongoing Process - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According to Thomas Kuhn, a paradigm shift occurs when there is a discovery that doesn't fit into any of the existing models. Read more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thomas Kuhn: Paradigm Shift Is an Ongoing Process\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to Thomas Kuhn, a paradigm shift occurs when there is a discovery that doesn't fit into any of the existing models. Read more.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-01T13:46:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-03T02:33:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/science-light-electricity.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1220\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Thomas Kuhn: Paradigm Shift Is an Ongoing Process\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-01T13:46:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-03T02:33:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/\"},\"wordCount\":503,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/science-light-electricity.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Structure of Scientific Revolutions\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Science\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/\",\"name\":\"Thomas Kuhn: Paradigm Shift Is an Ongoing Process - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/science-light-electricity.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-01T13:46:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-03T02:33:50+00:00\",\"description\":\"According to Thomas Kuhn, a paradigm shift occurs when there is a discovery that doesn't fit into any of the existing models. Read more.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/science-light-electricity.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/science-light-electricity.jpg\",\"width\":1220,\"height\":650},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Thomas Kuhn: Paradigm Shift Is an Ongoing Process\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World's Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\",\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"caption\":\"Darya Sinusoid\"},\"description\":\"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Thomas Kuhn: Paradigm Shift Is an Ongoing Process - Shortform Books","description":"According to Thomas Kuhn, a paradigm shift occurs when there is a discovery that doesn't fit into any of the existing models. Read more.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Thomas Kuhn: Paradigm Shift Is an Ongoing Process","og_description":"According to Thomas Kuhn, a paradigm shift occurs when there is a discovery that doesn't fit into any of the existing models. Read more.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2021-02-01T13:46:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-02-03T02:33:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1220,"height":650,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/science-light-electricity.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Darya Sinusoid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Darya Sinusoid","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/"},"author":{"name":"Darya Sinusoid","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46"},"headline":"Thomas Kuhn: Paradigm Shift Is an Ongoing Process","datePublished":"2021-02-01T13:46:34+00:00","dateModified":"2021-02-03T02:33:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/"},"wordCount":503,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/science-light-electricity.jpg","keywords":["The Structure of Scientific Revolutions"],"articleSection":["Science","Society"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/","name":"Thomas Kuhn: Paradigm Shift Is an Ongoing Process - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/science-light-electricity.jpg","datePublished":"2021-02-01T13:46:34+00:00","dateModified":"2021-02-03T02:33:50+00:00","description":"According to Thomas Kuhn, a paradigm shift occurs when there is a discovery that doesn't fit into any of the existing models. Read more.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/science-light-electricity.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/science-light-electricity.jpg","width":1220,"height":650},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thomas-kuhn-paradigm-shift\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Thomas Kuhn: Paradigm Shift Is an Ongoing Process"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World's Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46","name":"Darya Sinusoid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","caption":"Darya Sinusoid"},"description":"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/science-light-electricity.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25300"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26162,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25300\/revisions\/26162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}