Nickles, Thomas. "Scientific Revolutions." STANFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHILOSOPHY March 5, 2009.

The topic of scientific revolutions has become philosophically important, especially since Thomas Kuhn's account in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962, 1970). It is controversial whether there have been any revolutions in the strictly Kuhnian sense. It is also controversial what exactly a Kuhnian revolution is, or would be. Many analysts agree that there have been revolutionary scientific developments of various kinds, whether Kuhnian or not, but there is considerable disagreement about their import. For the existence and nature of scientific revolutions is a topic that raises a host of fundamental questions about the sciences and how to interpret them, a topic that intersects most of the major issues that have concerned philosophers of science and their colleagues in neighboring science studies disciplines such as history of science and sociology of science. Even if the so-called Scientific Revolution from Copernicus to Newton fits the attractive, Enlightenment picture of the transition from feudalism to modernity (a claim that is also contested), the putative revolutions in mature sciences (e.g., the relativity and quantum mechanical revolutions) challenge precisely this Enlightenment vision of rational, objective sciences and technologies leading society steadily along the path of progress toward the truth about the world. Although many philosophers and philosophically or historically reflective scientists had commented on the dramatic developments in twentieth-century physics, it was not until Kuhn that such developments seemed so epistemologically and ontologically damaging as to seriously challenge traditional conceptions of science—and hence our understanding of knowledge acquisition in general. Why it was Kuhn's work and its timing that made the major difference are themselves interesting questions for investigation, especially given that others (e.g., Wittgenstein, Fleck, Polanyi, Toulmin, and Hanson) had already broached important “Kuhnian” themes. Was there a Scientific Revolution that replaced pre-scientific thinking about nature and society and thus marked the transition to modernity? Which later developments, if any, are truly revolutionary? Are attributions of revolution usually a sign of insufficient historiographic understanding? In any case, how are such episodes to be explained historically and epistemologically? Are they historical accidents, perhaps avoidable; or are they somehow necessary—and, if so, why, and necessary for what? Is there an overall pattern of scientific development? If so, is it basically one of creative displacement, as Kuhn originally claimed? Do all revolutions have the same structure and function, or are there diverse forms of rupture, discontinuity, or rapid change in science? Do they represent great leaps forward or, on the contrary, does their existence undercut the claim that science progresses? Does the existence of revolutions in mature sciences support a postmodern or “post-critical” (Polanyi) rather than a modern, neo-Enlightenment conception of science in relation to other human enterprises? Does their existence support a strongly constructivist versus a realist conception of scientific knowledge claims? Are they rational or irrational? Do they invite epistemological relativism? What are the implications of revolution for science policy? . . . Read the rest here: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-revolutions/.