Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Thomas Kuhn)

Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" describes how science advances not only through continuous discovery but also via paradigm shifts. A paradigm is the established framework of theories and methods scientists use to understand the world. Over time, anomalies—irregularities that don’t fit the current paradigm—accumulate, leading to a scientific crisis. This prompts a revolutionary change, replacing the old paradigm with a new one that better explains the data. These shifts radically change scientific thinking and understanding, illustrating that science progresses through episodic, revolutionary changes rather than gradual, linear accumulation of knowledge.