Thomas Kuhn was one of those Philosophy of Science researchers who championed the discovery context, which privileges psychological, sociological and historical aspects as relevant to the foundation and evolution of science.
For Kuhn, science is a highly determined type of activity that consists of solving problems (like a puzzle) within a methodological unit called paradigm. This, despite its sufficient openness, delimits the problems to be solved in a given scientific field. It is he who establishes the standard of rationality accepted in a scientific community and is, therefore, the founding principle of a science for which scientists are trained.
O paradigm characterizes Normal Science. This is established after a kind of disorganized activity that tries to substantiate or explain phenomena still at a stage that Kuhn calls mythical or irrational: it is pre-science. Normal Science also occurs when paradigms are broken and replaced (which does not mean returning to the pre-science stage). It is that within a model there are anomalies or counterexamples that can call into question the validity of such a paradigm. If this really becomes insufficient to subject the anomalies to the theory - as seen from another angle they can become a problem – what Kuhn calls Extraordinary or Revolutionary Science occurs, which is nothing more than the adoption of another
paradigm, that is, of worldview.This is because within a paradigm there are prior expectations that scientists must corroborate. Therefore, scientists do not seek to discover (as the thinkers of the justification context) nothing but simply fitting theories to facts. When something different from this process occurs, it is due to subjective factors, such as technical incapacity of the professional, or the technical unfeasibility of the instruments, or the need for real replacement of the paradigm current. For this, scientists use hypotheses ad hoc to try to keep the paradigm (contrary to what Popper thought). Here, Kuhn highlights the character of discontinuity of scientific knowledge, which then progresses through ruptures and not through the accumulation of knowledge, as traditional science thought.
By João Francisco P. Cabral
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Philosophy from the Federal University of Uberlândia - UFU
Master's student in Philosophy at the State University of Campinas - UNICAMP
Philosophy - Brazil School
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/filosofia/a-filosofia-ciencia-thomas-kuhn.htm
