ABSTRACT
The proper scientist, as opposed to the mere researcher, formulated hypotheses deduced from some general theory as a means of testing that theory’s soundness. Karl Popper second principle, the principle of falsification, conveys the depressing news that all science can truly, that is, unambiguously know about nature is what is not true, what is false. Popper’s agreeable experimental tests and deductive logic are not the change agents in the real world of science, in Thomas Kuhn world. Kuhn called belief systems “paradigms,” a term he borrowed from the social sciences and that has long since entered our everyday vocabulary. A paradigm is an exemplar or archetype. Scientists who labor within its borders, in what Kuhn calls “normal science,” seek evidence to strengthen it, to elucidate and clarify its claims, but, and this is critical, not to test or question them. Kuhn believed that the great majority of scientists work in the world of normal science.
