Normal Science Does Not Aim At Novelties

The Transition Between Competing Paradigms Cannot Be Made A Step At A Time, Forced By Logic And Neutral Experience. Like The Gestalt Switch, It Must Occur All At Once (though Not Necessarily In An Instant) Or Not At All.

Normal Science, The Activity In Which Most Scientists Inevitably Spend Most All Their Time, Is Predicated On The Assumption That The Scientific Community Knows What The World Is Like. Normal Science Often Suppresses Fundamental Novelties Because They Are Necessarily Subversive Of Its Basic Commitments.

As In Political Revolutions, So In Paradigm Choice--there Is No Standard Higher Than The Assent Of The Relevant Community. To Discover How Scientific Revolutions Are Effected, We Shall Therefore Have To Examine Not Only The Impact Of Nature And Of Logic, But Also The Techniques Of Persuasive Argumentation Effective Within The Quite Special Groups That Constitute The Community Of Scientists.

Communication Across The Revolutionary Divide Is Inevitably Partial.

Normal Science Does Not Aim At Novelties Of Fact Or Theory And, When Successful, Finds None.