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“In the previous article, I discussed cosmology’s impact on the broader culture and briefly introduced Thomas Kuhn’s concept of paradigm shift (or scientific revolution.) In this article, I explore his notion of paradigm shift in greater detail and look at how it applies to the present state of cosmology.

In his book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn defined a paradigm shift as a type of scientific revolution. For Kuhn, science does not change gradually but is forced to change when a dominant model/theory in a given field is so broken that it cannot be fixed and a new model eventually supplants it. For Kuhn, a paradigm shift is not a singular thing but a process or a cycle with distinct stages. The stages1 are listed below, with my comments about how each pertains to cosmology in red bracketed font:

1. Pre-science – This is a pre-stage, where the field/discipline has no workable paradigm to successfully guide its work.

1. Normal Science – The normal step, where the field has a scientifically based model of understanding that works—(For Cosmology, for the past 100 or so years this model has been the Big Bang model, and its related features and concepts; though whether it works is debatable.)

1. Model Drift – The model of understanding starts to drift, due to accumulation of anomalies and phenomenon the model cannot explain—(To date concepts like dark matter, dark energy, and black holes are not fully understood, proven or explainable, even by scientists that coined them.)

1. Model Crisis – The Model Drift becomes so excessive that the model is broken. It can no longer serve as a reliable guide to problem-solving. Attempts to patch the model up to make it work fail. The field is in anguish—(I argue below that we are presently at this stage in the cycle. Even mainstream scientists are beginning to lament that the existing cosmological model is fraught with anomalies and contradictions and may be in trouble. I give examples below.)

1. Model Revolution – This begins when serious candidates for a new model emerge. It’s a revolution because the new model is so radically different from the old one—(Some might argue that this stage has also already begun and that the new model is the Electric Universe Theory, a point I revisit briefly in article three of this series, and then in greater detail in the next series.)

1. Paradigm Change – A single new paradigm emerges and the field changes from the old to the new paradigm. When this step ends the new paradigm becomes the new Normal Science and the Kuhn Cycle is complete—(With respect to current cosmology, this stage has yet to happen.)

Overall, the Kuhn cycle looks like this:

pre-science – normal science – crisis – revolution – new normal science – new crisis—new revolution.2”

https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2021/04/10/not-if-but-when-cosmology-in-crisis-the-coming-paradigm-shift-part-2/

Pic unrelated