‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’ (Summary)

by Thomas S. Kuhn

Yay, a book about Science!

Let’s jump in.

Thomas S. Kuhn blew my mind with a unique insight into how science advances. Spoiler: it’s not what you think.

Science depends largely on the heroes of our past, but as we advance, the questions on old revolutions continue to pile up. In many cases, the answers to these questions help improve our knowledge that pushes us further. Mr. Kuhn summarizes this beautifully a few pages into the book:

What is the structure of scientific revolutions?

“normal science with a paradigm and a dedication to solving puzzles; followed by serious anomalies, which lead to a crisis; and finally resolution of the crisis by a new paradigm”

Modern day science is very predictable, in many cases the experiments are set with expected results, only to prove revolutions that already exist. The kicker is when we use better tools, we become more precise with our findings, therefore pushing us to find holes in our original theories. The gaps fill with new knowledge that alters the revolution — creating a new paradigm.

The word revolution is hard to process because we see it in marketing and advertising, daily. We often hear things like, “this pillow is revolutionary.” These types of statements hurt the scientific kids because there is no comparison. We can’t forget that in many cases the revolutions and new paradigms, stem from recreating what already exists, not blazing a new trail. Very similar to the tech world, the latest billion dollar companies are not novel ideas, they are simply improvements on ideas that have already existed. Think AirBnB, Uber and SnapChat.

Throughout the book, I was a little upset at scientists, mostly because I thought we weren’t pushing things forward as much as you would assume. However, I quickly learned that ‘normal science’ doesn’t aim at novelty, yet novelty emerges when we confirm the science that we already know, just in new ways.

I enjoyed this book, it took me a lot longer to finish than I would have liked, but it’s hard to make scientific theory a nail biter.

Should you read this book?

Unless you want to know all the small details, then no. Just read a summary!

Favorite Quote:

“Normal science, the activity in which most scientists inevitably spend almost all their time, is predicated on the assumption that the scientific community knows what the world is like. ”