ABSTRACT
The language of scientific revolution entered the human vocabulary during the period of social and generational restlessness that preceded the French Revolution. The reception of the theory of relativity in Britain is perhaps the most dramatic example of the collaboration of a scientific establishment in the validation of a revolutionary theory. Scientific revolutions have involved during the twentieth century elements of continuity in consciousness and logic wholly lacking in social revolutions. The significance of generational rebellion as the primary motivating force giving rise to new intellectual movements is gradually being recognized by social scientists. During World War II and since then, it has also been fashionable to regard the scientific enterprise as a military operation. A discovery became a breakthrough, a hypothesis was a beachhead, scientific method was a strategy, and the tactics were the specific techniques to be used in particular situations.
