Communication Across The Revolutionary Divide

Research Under A Paradigm Must Be A Particularly Effective Way Of Inducing Paradigm Change.

The Resolution Of Revolutions Is Selection By Conflict Within The Scientific Community Of The Fittest Way To Practice Future Science. The Net Result Of A Sequence Of Such Revolutionary Selections, Separated By Periods Of Normal Research, Is The Wonderfully Adapted Set Of Instruments We Call Modern Scientific Knowledge.

Individuals Who Break Through By Inventing A New Paradigm Are Almost Always Either Very Young Men Or Very New To The Field Whose Paradigm They Change. These Are The Men Who, Being Little Committed By Prior Practice To The Traditional Rules Of Normal Science, Are Particularly Likely To See That Those Rules No Longer Define A Playable Game And Conceive Another Set That Can Replace Them.

The Transition Between Competing Paradigms Cannot Be Made A Step At A Time, Forced By Logic And Neutral Experience. Like The Gestalt Switch, It Must Occur All At Once (though Not Necessarily In An Instant) Or Not At All.

The Answers You Get Depend Upon The Questions You Ask.