Paradigms and revolutions
Practice Flashcards
Flip to reveal answersParadigm (Kuhn)?
Track your progress — Sign up free to save your progress and get smart review reminders based on spaced repetition.
All 8 Flashcards — Paradigms and revolutions
Sign up free to track progress and get spaced-repetition review schedules.
Question
Paradigm (Kuhn)?
Answer
The whole framework — theories, methods and assumptions — a scientific community shares and works inside.
Question
Normal science?
Answer
Everyday puzzle-solving that takes the paradigm for granted, not questioning the big picture.
Question
Anomaly?
Answer
A result that stubbornly refuses to fit the current paradigm; enough of them build into a crisis.
Question
Paradigm shift?
Answer
A wholesale switch from one scientific framework to another when anomalies force a crisis — a revolution.
Question
A classic paradigm shift example?
Answer
Earth-centred → Sun-centred universe: not one more fact, but a completely new way of seeing the same sky.
Question
Feyerabend's 'anything goes'?
Answer
No single scientific method fits all good science; the great breakthroughs broke the rules of their day.
Question
Kuhn's sting about 'progress'?
Answer
Rival paradigms can be so different there's no neutral ground to call one simply 'truer' than another.
Question
The danger in Kuhn/Feyerabend (Go further)?
Answer
If there's no neutral ground or fixed method, does science become mere opinion? Most resist: paradigms still differ in accuracy, scope, fruitfulness.
Read the notes
Full study notes for Paradigms and revolutions
Topic 6.1 hub
Nature and methodologies of science
More from Topic 6.1
All flashcards in this topic
Philosophy exam skills
Paper structures & tips
Track your progress with spaced repetition
Sign up free — Aimnova tells you exactly which cards to review and when, so you remember everything before your IB exam.
Start Free