Lately I’ve been thinking about Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which argued that science advances not in some smooth progression, but by undergoing paradigm shifts. A great example of this is the switch from the Earth-centered solar system to the Sun-centered solar system. For renaissance-era astronomers, the Earth-centered system presented a lot of difficulties, as there were a lot of weird looking patterns in the sky (such as Mercury appearing to go in little circles) that required complicated theories to make work. The pile of observations that couldn't easily be fit into a model of planets going around the Earth kept growing, making a mess of things. The Sun-centered theory, while radical from an existential perspective, made a lot more sense when compared to observations, which set up the conditions for a fairly rapid paradigm shift after Copernicus published his findings in 1543, as the observations fit so much better with the Sun-centered model. Yes the history is more complicated, but it’s an analogy, so I hope you’ll forgive me.
Paradigm shift, from punishment to healing
Paradigm shift, from punishment to healing
Paradigm shift, from punishment to healing
Lately I’ve been thinking about Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which argued that science advances not in some smooth progression, but by undergoing paradigm shifts. A great example of this is the switch from the Earth-centered solar system to the Sun-centered solar system. For renaissance-era astronomers, the Earth-centered system presented a lot of difficulties, as there were a lot of weird looking patterns in the sky (such as Mercury appearing to go in little circles) that required complicated theories to make work. The pile of observations that couldn't easily be fit into a model of planets going around the Earth kept growing, making a mess of things. The Sun-centered theory, while radical from an existential perspective, made a lot more sense when compared to observations, which set up the conditions for a fairly rapid paradigm shift after Copernicus published his findings in 1543, as the observations fit so much better with the Sun-centered model. Yes the history is more complicated, but it’s an analogy, so I hope you’ll forgive me.