Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Thomas S. Kuhn


9/10

This was truly an incredible read. Did not expect to enjoy a relatively old book on the history of science as much as I did. It focuses on big innovators (notably Newton, Lavoisier, Einstein and Maxwell) and uses their historic positions to illustrate his points clearly. It’s about as page-turny as such a book can get.

It’s influence, both wrt content and linguistically is immense. Just so that terms like “paradigm shift” have taken on a life of their own and changed much from their original meaning.

Much of what kuhn describes, students becoming scientists, has lost itself in college politics and bureaucracy. The most innovative fields like CS ahve their research done in large parts by private companies. Will be interesting to see where the next paradigm shift brings us to.