The Logic of Systemic Analysis

The development of sociological theory in general, and more specifically of those aspects which deal with social control, has not been characterized by “scientific revolutions.” Thomas S. Kuhn has offered the idea of a scientific revolution which produces a new paradigm and becomes binding on the empirical research of investigators. ¹ This orientation does not consider that science proceeds by a continuous process of accumulation and by testing particular hypotheses. Rather, at specific moments, noteworthy issues which are unresolved force a fundamental and “radical” reorientation and hence a scientific revolution in which basically new premises and models are suddenly introduced. Kuhn calls such moments revolutions because they provide no opportunity for a compromise between the old and the new format.