The Normal Scientific Point of View of Practicing Scientists

Volume 06, Issue 4

Thomas Kuhn himself was obliged to withdraw his own term paradigm (Kuhn 1970). After that, most academics dropped the use of Kuhnian concepts. Although mostly abandoned in the history of the scientific community, I insist that the original Kuhnian definition can be a useful tool when describing the history of science. I remain a stem Kuhnian to this day, much more than Kuhn himself. One example is my biography of Hideyo Noguchi (Nakayama 1978). Using completely Kuhnian terms, I have evaluated him to be a normal scientist at the stage of Robert Koch's paradigm that barely bears fruit any more. In this article I present my own version of Kuhnianism with sympathetic inclination toward the practicing scientific community, rather than toward the general public (including professional philosophers of science). Furthermore, I have an old sense of Marxism, similar to that of Jerome Ravetz. In conclusion, I will develop Kuhnian terms further to connect social substratum and superstructure.

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