Paper: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: Paradigms and Epistemological Progress

An exhaustive historical and sociological analysis of scientific progress that head-on challenges the positivist myth of the cumulative and purely linear advance of knowledge. In this founding text, Kuhn introduces the now famous concept of 'Paradigm Shift', arguing that what is called 'normal science' operates in daily practice under strict untouchable presuppositions (unquestioned dogmas or paradigms). When enough heavy empirical anomalies accumulate that the hegemonic paradigm cannot explain or absorb, the discipline enters a deep crisis. This conceptual turbulence inevitably results in an abrupt scientific revolution, where a new paradigm, often incommensurable with the previous one, ends up replacing the old framework. Crucially, Kuhn demonstrates that the adoption of this new model is not exclusively dictated by pure, objective facts in an aseptic vacuum, but is massively shaped and determined by sociological factors, group biases, psychological power dynamics, and strong political interests that operate relentlessly within the scientific community itself.