Thomas Kuhn observed that scientific research normally follows a consensual research programme.

This programme is based on a consensual understanding of the world that determines hypotheses and observations, a “paradigm”.

However scientific research also undergoes upheavals, “paradigmatic shifts” or “scientific revolutions”.

They start with a paradigmatic crisis, when the observation of too many anomalies weakens the belief that the paradigm is correct.

Science emerges from such crises when a new paradigm can again explain all observations, including previous anomalies.

Accepting a new paradigm implies to review previous hypotheses and research programmes, and adapt or abandon them. Scientific research is therefore not a linear, incremental progress, but a succession of periods punctuated by scientific revolutions.

However, scientific revolutions are rare. Thomas Kuhn traced the first modern scientific revolution to the work of Copernicus. The next ones resulted from the works of Newton, Lavoisier, Darwin and Einstein.

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Learn more :

Scientific revolutions explained by The Guardian (2012)

Scientific revolution explained by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Thomas Kuhn’s biography (Encyclopedia Britannica)