On the Paradigmatic Force of Anomaly

Abstract

No text has shaped the contemporary understanding and analytic use of anomalies as much as Thomas Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). For Kuhn, the anomaly constitutes an exceptional moment in the ordinary course of scientific activity that eventually forces a large-scale revision of the game-rules according to which natural phenomena are investigated, explained, and predicted. Oscillating between novelty and inexplicability, Kuhn's anomaly tests the limited character of dominant epistemic procedures and encourages the search for new norms and practices.

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