Kuhn's 'Structure of Scientific Revolutions' at Fifty

Thomas S. Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions (SSR) is one of the most important books published in the last hundred years. His language and concepts have permeated contemporary thought, and his arguments and positions are still alive and of real importance. Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions at Fifty is a collection of essays by leading social scientists and philosophers that explores the origins of Kuhn's masterwork and its legacy a half-century on. The authors exhume important historical context for Kuhn's work, critically analyzing its foundations in twentieth-century science, politics, and more. They situate SSR within Kuhn's own intellectual biography, too: his experiences as a physics graduate student doing quintessential "normal science," his close relationships with psychologists both before and after the publication of SSR , and the Cold War framework of concepts such as "world view" and "paradigm." The book's citation history is even used to reveal SSR's shifting audiences - and changes in scholarly reading habits. And, of course, the contributors explore the central features of SSR by addressing the import of key Kuhnian concepts, both then and now, including "revolution," "scientific community," and - inevitably - the elusive yet still enticing "paradigm." Anyone interested in Kuhn's ideas will profit from reading this book.