This book is a highly influential work in philosophy of science. More broadly, in intellectual history it has attracted attention far beyond its own field. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) is written with a combination of depth and clarity that make it an almost unbroken series of aphorisms.
Thomas Kuhn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Samuel_Kuhn and http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/vl/notes/weinberg.html) does not permit truth to be a criterion of scientific theories. Instead we encounter the ‘world’ (whatever that is) through a series of theoretical ‘paradigm shifts’. If causing a revolution is the hallmark of a superior paradigm, this book has been a resounding success and should not be missed. The philosophy of science has made a great deal of progress since 1962 but this landmark work stimulated much of that progress and deserves your attention.
Available in paperback at http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Structure-Scientific-Revolutions-Anniversary/dp/0226458121/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390036950&sr=8-1&keywords=structure+of+scientific+revolutions or enquire at your local library.
Read this alongside ‘What is this thing called science’ by A. F. Chalmers at http://sbr.lanark.co.uk/?p=2254
As a warm up to this subject, listen to the Radio 4 ‘In Our Time’ episode (45 minutes) on the Scientific Method available at this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01b1ljm With Simon Schaffer – Professor of the History of Science at Cambridge, John Worrall – Professor of the Philosophy of Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Michela Massimi – Senior Lecturer in the Philosophy of Science at University College London. First broadcast Thursday 26 Jan 2012.
288 pages in University of Chicago Press paperback edition
First published 1962
ISBN 978-0226458120
Thomas Kuhn looking paradigmatic