Study questions 8

What does Kuhn mean when he describes normal science as a puzzle-solving activity involving the use of shared paradigms?

Kuhn means that scientists solve their problems using shared theories, rules, and methods called paradigms. They use these shared ideas to guide their research and find answers to scientific questions.

Carefully explain why Kuhn believes that research involved in normal science tests only the ingenuity of the individual investigator and not the theory under investigation.

Kuhn believes normal science tests the scientist’s ability to solve problems, not whether the theory is correct. Scientists assume the theory is true and try to solve puzzles using it rather than questioning the theory itself.

Do you believe that Kuhn is right about most scientific research qualifying as normal science? Be sure to explain and defend answer

Yes. I agree with Kuhn because most scientists use existing theories and knowledge to solve problems rather than trying to completely change scientific ideas. Most research builds on what scientists already understand.

Explain why Kuhn believes that scientific revolutions are not determined by reason or by observation.  Do you believe he is right? Be sure to defend your answer. 

Kuhn believes scientific revolutions are influenced by scientists’ beliefs and perspectives, not just facts or observations. I partly agree because personal beliefs can affect scientific decisions, but evidence and reasoning still play an important role in changing scientific theories

Explain why Kuhn believes that after a scientific revolution “…the scientist’s perception of his environment must be re-educated.”  (p. 188).  Do you believe he is right? Be sure to explain and defend your answer

Kuhn means that after a scientific revolution, scientists must learn to see and understand the world in a new way because the old theories have changed. I agree becasue new discoveries can change how scinetists understand things they previously believed to be true

When one looks at the duck/rabbit does one observe lines on paper or, alternatively, a duck or a rabbit?

You observe lines on paper that you brain interprets as either a duck or rabbit. You can see both but usually one at a time.

Why does Kuhn believe that scientists’ perceptions are different before and after a scientific revolution—that it is more than just a matter of interpreting what one sees differently?

Kuhn believes scientific revolutions change how scientists actually see and understand the world, not just how they explain it. New theories cause scientists to notice and experience things differently.

Discuss whether astronomers saw the heavens differently after Herschel’s discovery of Uranus—did they observe things (planets and asteroids) that they hadn’t seen before or did they just interpret them differently?

Astronomers began noticing and identifying objects in the sky that they had overlooked before. Their knowledge changed how they observed the ehavens, allowing them to recognize new planets and asteroids

Kuhn claims that the reason that Chinese astronomers reported observations of sunspots centuries before Galileo and his contemporaries has to do with the influence of the Ptolmaic paradigm for astronomy on the perceptions of early European astronomers; unlike early Chinese astronomy, Ptolmaic astronomy held that the heavens (and the celestial bodies within them) were unchanging. In other words, the Ptolmaic paradigm literally blinded European observers to the presence of sunspots. Do you believe he is right about this? Explain and defend your answer.

I partly agree with Kuhn because European astronomers expected the heavens to be unchanging, which may have made them overlook sunspots. Their beliefs influenced what they noticed, but I don’t think they were completely blind to them

If Kuhn is right about the paradigms that scientists hold literally determining what they see, how are scientific revolutions possible?

Scientific revolutions are possible when scientists discover evidence that their current theories cannot explain. This can lead them to question old beliefs, adopt a new paradigm, and begin seeing the world differently.