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How Karl Popper's ideals lost out to Thomas Kuhn's "normal science"

By Ray Percival

6 September 2003

Kuhn vs Popper: The struggle for the soul of science by Steve Fuller, Icon, £9.99, ISBN 1840464682 Reviewed by Ray Percival

COULD you think about science without considering the conflict between the views of the philosophers Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper? It’s hard to imagine a course in the philosophy of science without a section devoted to the debate between these intellectual giants. And the ramifications of this conflict run deep in modern society and politics in general.

Simply put, Kuhn championed what he called “normal science”, which consists of scientists busily engaged in working out the puzzles presented within…

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