The Historian Of Science May Be Tempted

What Chemists Took From Dalton Was Not New Experimental Laws But A New Way Of Practicing Chemistry (he Himself Called It The 'new System Of Chemical Philosophy'), And This Proved So Rapidly Fruitful That Only A Few Of The Older Chemists In France And Britain Were Able To Resist It.

The Decision To Reject One Paradigm Is Always Simultaneously The Decision To Accept Another, And The Judgment Leading To That Decision Involves The Comparison Of Both Paradigms With Nature And With Each Other.

No Part Of The Aim Of Normal Science Is To Call Forth New Sorts Of Phenomena; Indeed Those That Will Not Fit The Box Are Often Not Seen At All. Nor Do Scientists Normally Aim To Invent New Theories, And They Are Often Intolerant Of Those Invented By Others.

The Man Who Is Striving To Solve A Problem Defined By Existing Knowledge And Technique Is Not, However, Just Looking Around. He Knows What He Wants To Achieve, And He Designs His Instruments And Directs His Thoughts Accordingly. Unanticipated Novelty, The New Discovery, Can Emerge Only To The Extent That His Anticipations About Nature And His Instruments Prove Wrong... There Is No Other Effective Way In Which Discoveries Might Be Generated.

"normal Science" Means Research Firmly Based Upon One Or More Past Scientific Achievements, Achievements That Some Particular Scientific Community Acknowledges For A Time As Supplying The Foundation For Its Further Practice.