WEBVTT 00:00.660 --> 00:08.980 Thomas Kuhn is a highly respected scholar of the 20th century and author of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 00:09.780 --> 00:14.360 Kuhn describes a short history of the development of science in the western world. 00:15.220 --> 00:20.960 Science is about identifying a phenomenon and using logic and reason to understand that phenomena. 00:21.760 --> 00:24.240 An online definition of science says, quote, 00:24.240 --> 00:29.120 the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study 00:29.120 --> 00:34.440 of structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment. 00:35.320 --> 00:40.260 Science can also mean a systematically organized body of knowledge on a particular subject, 00:40.720 --> 00:44.640 for example, physics, life sciences, chemistry, and geology. 00:45.580 --> 00:50.460 The goal of science is to explain natural phenomena by finding patterns of behavior 00:50.460 --> 00:53.260 and using the pattern to make accurate predictions. 00:54.160 --> 00:56.940 Science begins with observation of a phenomena. 00:57.740 --> 01:01.460 Examples of phenomena that have fascinated scientists throughout the centuries, 01:02.060 --> 01:07.040 the pendulum, the nature of light, the structure of matter, disease and its causes, 01:07.640 --> 01:11.900 patterns of behavior of the sun, moon, and stars, and of course many others. 01:12.780 --> 01:16.620 When several theories on the same theme merge, they become a paradigm. 01:16.620 --> 01:22.380 According to the online definition, a phenomenon is a fact or situation 01:22.380 --> 01:28.100 that is observed to exist or happen, especially one whose cause or expectation is in question, 01:28.700 --> 01:34.580 and also an object or aspect known through the senses rather than by thought or intuition. 01:35.500 --> 01:40.280 The quest to understand the why and how of study of phenomena triggers research 01:40.280 --> 01:43.760 which sometimes leads to establishing scientific facts. 01:43.760 --> 01:46.760 A fact is an irrefutable truth. 01:47.460 --> 01:53.300 A scientific fact can be verified by observation and or experiment over and over again, 01:53.640 --> 01:55.500 giving approximately the same result. 01:56.320 --> 02:00.340 For example, seawater contains several dissolved salts and minerals. 02:00.880 --> 02:04.820 Experiment heats seawater until all the liquid evaporates. 02:05.340 --> 02:05.760 Result? 02:06.260 --> 02:09.720 Crystalline residue of salts and minerals remain in the container. 02:09.720 --> 02:14.980 This experiment can be repeated again and again, producing the same result. 02:15.720 --> 02:20.760 But sometimes there are unexpected circumstance that do not fit, called anomalies. 02:21.680 --> 02:28.720 According to an online definition, an anomaly is something that deviates from what is standard, normal, or expected. 02:29.720 --> 02:34.920 A situation or event that arises cannot be explained within the framework of a given theory. 02:35.620 --> 02:39.940 Anomalies are inconvenient but important because they drive research 02:39.940 --> 02:46.640 either to confirm existing theories, discover new phenomenon, or abandon old theories to form new ones. 02:47.400 --> 02:48.280 A simple anecdote. 02:48.960 --> 02:53.260 A boy, Tom, grows up believing the theory his parents taught him 02:53.260 --> 02:56.920 that all stones, when thrown into water, sink to the bottom. 02:57.760 --> 03:02.140 One day he is on the beach and finds a stone and throws it into the sea. 03:02.140 --> 03:05.860 To his amazement it sinks and then floats to the top. 03:06.560 --> 03:10.080 He realizes the paradigm taught to him by his parents is shattered. 03:10.820 --> 03:12.580 He runs home and tells his parents. 03:13.260 --> 03:14.600 His father replies and says, 03:15.160 --> 03:17.900 but that is what our parents and grandparents taught us. 03:18.320 --> 03:19.940 Sorry son, we didn't know. 03:20.740 --> 03:22.860 The theory must now be changed to 03:22.860 --> 03:26.700 most stones when thrown into water sink to the bottom. 03:27.400 --> 03:30.140 The rock is pumice, found on some beaches. 03:30.140 --> 03:33.340 A light rock with a density less than water, 03:33.700 --> 03:36.800 full of tiny holes left by escaping gases 03:36.800 --> 03:39.520 which is thrown out of ancient active volcanoes. 03:40.260 --> 03:42.820 It floats because it is less dense than water. 03:43.520 --> 03:46.280 The point made here, simple as it sounds, is 03:46.280 --> 03:51.200 theories and paradigms have to change as new knowledge is gained. 03:51.820 --> 03:54.240 When a phenomenon is initially identified 03:54.240 --> 03:56.920 ideas are brought together to form theories 03:56.920 --> 04:00.180 and the theories are then tested by forming hypotheses. 04:01.020 --> 04:04.040 Then making experiments to see if the theories are valid. 04:04.700 --> 04:06.580 This is the nuts and bolts of science. 04:07.360 --> 04:11.600 Theories fail because anomalies are found that do not fit the theory. 04:12.140 --> 04:14.900 So the theory is no longer viable and must change. 04:15.740 --> 04:17.980 Kuhn says that paradigms, quote, 04:18.420 --> 04:20.900 are a framework containing the basic assumptions, 04:21.440 --> 04:25.040 ways of thinking and methodology that are commonly accepted 04:25.040 --> 04:27.300 by members of a scientific community. 04:27.880 --> 04:31.900 A cognitive framework shared by members of any discipline or group. 04:32.840 --> 04:35.540 He uses the term paradigm in different senses. 04:36.180 --> 04:39.300 He calls accepted paradigms, ruling paradigms, 04:39.480 --> 04:42.020 or grand narratives, world views, 04:42.560 --> 04:45.040 and related terms such as paradigm change, 04:45.500 --> 04:47.680 paradigm shift, paradigm driven, 04:48.260 --> 04:51.360 and paradigm expectation to describe experiments 04:51.360 --> 04:53.720 which determine the way in which experiments 04:53.720 --> 04:55.100 are designed and interpreted. 04:55.880 --> 04:57.600 Kuhn saw a historical pattern 04:57.600 --> 04:59.880 in the way science develops over time. 05:00.420 --> 05:02.140 Generations, even centuries, 05:02.640 --> 05:04.220 and by understanding the pattern 05:04.220 --> 05:07.760 it is possible to predict how old paradigms are abandoned 05:07.760 --> 05:10.040 or morph into new paradigms. 05:10.560 --> 05:13.980 He shows how to identify when old paradigms are creaking 05:13.980 --> 05:15.480 and need to regenerate. 05:15.960 --> 05:18.700 The list below is a summary of six stages. 05:19.560 --> 05:21.600 Normal science, puzzle solving, 05:21.600 --> 05:23.560 forming of paradigms, 05:23.940 --> 05:26.240 identifying anomalies that drive research, 05:26.800 --> 05:28.460 crisis, and revolution. 05:29.540 --> 05:31.880 Normal science is based on the acknowledgement 05:31.880 --> 05:34.380 of prior scientific achievements. 05:35.280 --> 05:38.480 Puzzle solving is explaining the observations of phenomena 05:38.480 --> 05:40.380 in terms of known science 05:40.380 --> 05:42.260 which leads to better understanding. 05:43.240 --> 05:45.380 A paradigm is an accepted plan, 05:45.980 --> 05:47.260 a single group of theories 05:47.260 --> 05:51.000 to give a rational explanation to a phenomenon or puzzle. 05:52.000 --> 05:53.880 Anomalies are observations 05:53.880 --> 05:55.740 that cannot be explained 05:55.740 --> 05:58.820 within the framework of an accepted theory or paradigm. 05:59.860 --> 06:00.240 Crisis. 06:01.020 --> 06:03.220 All crises begin with confusion, 06:03.880 --> 06:05.260 the blurring of a paradigm 06:05.260 --> 06:08.400 and need to loosen the rules of normal research. 06:09.220 --> 06:10.580 A revolution in science 06:10.580 --> 06:12.520 changes the common worldview, 06:13.060 --> 06:13.980 the ruling paradigm, 06:14.300 --> 06:15.940 and the way scientists think. 06:16.860 --> 06:18.800 Also, the related terms 06:18.800 --> 06:20.940 paradigm and paradigm shift 06:20.940 --> 06:24.580 widely used as from the mid-20th century onward. 06:24.960 --> 06:27.760 But some scholars do not see the term paradigm 06:27.760 --> 06:29.380 as adequately defined. 06:30.140 --> 06:33.160 Ian Hacking, in his introductory essay to Coon's book, 06:33.720 --> 06:36.220 describes the sense that Coon used the word paradigm. 06:37.020 --> 06:37.760 Hacking says, 06:38.040 --> 06:40.900 paradigm's quote can be read in endless ways 06:40.900 --> 06:42.440 and put to many uses. 06:43.180 --> 06:46.780 Coon himself admitted that he lost control of the word. 06:46.780 --> 06:50.940 Coon's view of paradigms has been criticized in detail 06:50.940 --> 06:52.480 by Margaret Masterman, 06:52.820 --> 06:55.800 who claimed there are 22 different applications of the word. 06:56.700 --> 06:59.200 In this book, the concept of paradigms 06:59.200 --> 07:02.640 will often substitute for a variety of familiar notions. 07:03.320 --> 07:06.880 A paradigm is a fundamental unit of scientific development, 07:07.460 --> 07:09.320 a unit that cannot be fully reduced 07:09.320 --> 07:11.520 to logically atomic components 07:11.520 --> 07:13.420 which might function in its stead. 07:14.320 --> 07:16.980 Coon cites Aristotle's analysis of motion, 07:17.660 --> 07:20.280 Ptolemy's computations of planetary positions, 07:20.840 --> 07:24.040 Antoine Lavossier's application of the chemical balance, 07:24.740 --> 07:26.400 Maxwell's mathematicalization 07:26.400 --> 07:29.420 of the electromagnetic fields as paradigms. 07:30.180 --> 07:32.100 Exemplary instances of science 07:32.100 --> 07:34.680 are typically to be found in books and papers. 07:35.440 --> 07:38.040 Coon describes great texts as paradigms, 07:38.500 --> 07:40.900 heliocentricity, geocentricity, 07:40.900 --> 07:42.900 Ptolemy's Almagest. 07:43.320 --> 07:46.740 Such texts contain not only the key theories and laws, 07:47.160 --> 07:49.740 but also, and this is what makes them paradigms, 07:50.080 --> 07:51.760 the applications of those theories 07:51.760 --> 07:54.280 in the solution of important problems, 07:54.720 --> 07:57.880 along with the new experimental or mathematical techniques. 07:58.640 --> 08:01.900 According to Coon, paradigms are not a fixed 08:01.900 --> 08:03.700 but a changing set of theories, 08:04.080 --> 08:05.360 but a dynamic system, 08:05.820 --> 08:07.380 a bubble of theories or ideas 08:07.580 --> 08:09.560 with a permeable flexible skin 08:09.560 --> 08:11.180 where the constituent theories 08:11.180 --> 08:13.020 are continually scrutinized, 08:13.460 --> 08:15.160 a shared constellation of beliefs, 08:15.500 --> 08:16.580 values, and techniques 08:16.580 --> 08:18.720 embraced by a particular community. 08:19.600 --> 08:21.100 Beliefs, ideas, and theories 08:21.100 --> 08:23.160 change with advancing knowledge, 08:23.500 --> 08:25.960 so the outer skin of developing theories 08:25.960 --> 08:27.000 must be flexible. 08:27.860 --> 08:28.940 Richard Tarnas says, 08:29.640 --> 08:31.700 there is an appreciation of the plasticity 08:31.700 --> 08:34.120 and constant change of reality and knowledge, 08:34.620 --> 08:37.440 stress on the priority of concrete experience 08:37.440 --> 08:39.400 over fixed abstract principles, 08:40.060 --> 08:42.060 and a conviction that no single 08:42.060 --> 08:43.760 a priori thought system 08:43.760 --> 08:45.980 should govern belief or investigation. 08:46.900 --> 08:48.860 Coon describes the term revolution, 08:49.500 --> 08:52.120 which is often associated with political revolution, 08:52.580 --> 08:54.180 where one political ideology 08:54.180 --> 08:56.860 overturns another, usually by force. 08:57.720 --> 08:59.300 New discoveries may also lead 08:59.300 --> 09:01.320 to a complete change or revolution, 09:01.800 --> 09:04.360 for example, in the style and standard of living 09:04.360 --> 09:05.840 and the way people think. 09:05.840 --> 09:08.260 But there are other kinds of revolutions, 09:08.680 --> 09:11.800 cultural, social, and scientific revolutions. 09:12.520 --> 09:14.620 Coon sees scientific revolutions 09:14.620 --> 09:17.480 as indicators of cultural change in belief. 09:18.400 --> 09:19.640 Scientific revolutions 09:19.640 --> 09:21.640 can change the way people think, 09:21.840 --> 09:22.820 including scientists. 09:23.700 --> 09:25.960 Some examples of scientific revolutions 09:25.960 --> 09:27.820 are Pythagorean philosophy, 09:28.700 --> 09:30.580 Hippocrates, the father of medicine, 09:31.460 --> 09:32.880 Aristotelian philosophy, 09:32.880 --> 09:35.360 Ptolemy's geocentricism, 09:35.900 --> 09:37.880 Nicholas Coprenicus's heliocentricism, 09:39.480 --> 09:40.660 the industrial revolution, 09:41.800 --> 09:43.000 Pasteur's germ theory, 09:44.020 --> 09:45.220 the communications revolution, 09:46.220 --> 09:46.820 Morse code, 09:47.680 --> 09:49.340 Marconi's wireless communication, 09:50.200 --> 09:51.320 the computer revolution, 09:52.060 --> 09:53.160 and the list goes on. 09:53.880 --> 09:56.500 All of these brought cultural and social change, 09:56.780 --> 09:59.340 because cultural and scientific revolutions 09:59.340 --> 10:02.080 are interrelated, where logic and reason 10:02.080 --> 10:03.000 demand change. 10:03.800 --> 10:06.560 But there is a negative side to paradigm development. 10:07.400 --> 10:09.340 If paradigms lose their flexibility, 10:09.960 --> 10:12.180 they cannot incorporate change from the outside. 10:13.040 --> 10:14.460 Some examples of change 10:14.460 --> 10:16.480 by a scientist who thought outside 10:16.480 --> 10:18.360 the existing and accepted paradigm. 10:19.120 --> 10:21.140 In Britain, the idea of X-rays 10:21.140 --> 10:23.480 were originally thought to be a hoax. 10:24.080 --> 10:25.900 X-rays were discovered by accident. 10:26.560 --> 10:27.940 They were denied to exist 10:27.940 --> 10:29.660 by a leading scientist of the day, 10:29.660 --> 10:33.020 Lord Thompson, because it did not fit the box. 10:33.960 --> 10:36.480 When X-rays were to be seen as a form of light 10:36.480 --> 10:38.300 and everything fell into place, 10:38.880 --> 10:40.580 Thompson was thinking in terms 10:40.580 --> 10:43.240 or rigid paradigms of his own experience, 10:43.720 --> 10:44.620 effectively saying, 10:45.220 --> 10:46.780 I am a leading scientist of the day, 10:47.100 --> 10:48.620 how can I not know about this? 10:49.560 --> 10:51.360 The discovery of wireless communication 10:51.360 --> 10:52.660 is another example. 10:53.380 --> 10:55.720 Marconi was only one of several scientists 10:55.720 --> 10:57.880 working with wireless communication 10:57.880 --> 10:59.760 at the turn of the 19th century. 11:00.240 --> 11:01.720 But he is a well-known name 11:01.720 --> 11:03.600 because he helped commercialize 11:03.600 --> 11:04.960 the practical use of wireless, 11:05.400 --> 11:07.680 receiving the Nobel Prize in 1909. 11:08.540 --> 11:10.280 But early on he was ridiculed 11:10.280 --> 11:12.280 by mainstream scientists of the time 11:12.280 --> 11:14.820 for his ideas about wireless communication 11:14.820 --> 11:17.200 over long distances around the globe. 11:17.960 --> 11:20.040 Critics said the curve of the earth 11:20.040 --> 11:22.000 would be a barrier that would deflect 11:22.000 --> 11:23.940 wireless waves by the equivalent 11:23.940 --> 11:25.460 of a wall of seawater 11:25.460 --> 11:27.640 125 miles high. 11:28.500 --> 11:29.160 They were wrong. 11:29.940 --> 11:30.980 In 1903 11:30.980 --> 11:32.940 Marconi launched a transmitter 11:33.180 --> 11:35.720 at its own expense on a huge kite 11:35.720 --> 11:36.840 in Cornwall, England 11:36.840 --> 11:39.540 and transmitted a successful radio message 11:39.540 --> 11:41.300 in Morse code to Newfoundland. 11:41.920 --> 11:43.740 This was a revolution indeed 11:43.740 --> 11:45.820 and a new communication paradigm 11:45.820 --> 11:47.940 was born that changed the world. 11:48.820 --> 11:50.540 Scientists are often wrong. 11:51.420 --> 11:52.540 Marconi's ideas 11:52.540 --> 11:55.320 certainly caused a rapid paradigm shift. 11:55.320 --> 11:56.780 And by 1906 11:57.030 --> 11:59.100 nearly all ships of the British Navy 11:59.100 --> 12:01.340 were fitted with wireless communication. 12:02.080 --> 12:02.600 And today 12:02.600 --> 12:05.200 the mobile cell phones are ubiquitous. 12:06.020 --> 12:06.780 Out with the old 12:06.990 --> 12:08.040 and in with the new. 12:08.900 --> 12:11.360 Louis Pasteur faced a mountain of criticism 12:11.360 --> 12:13.720 from his own colleagues against his germ theory. 12:14.460 --> 12:14.920 Fortunately 12:14.920 --> 12:16.680 this made him more determined 12:17.010 --> 12:19.440 producing more rigorous experimental procedures 12:19.440 --> 12:21.380 and plans which demolished 12:21.380 --> 12:22.720 the miasma paradigm. 12:22.720 --> 12:24.820 Many thousands of lives 12:24.820 --> 12:27.060 were saved in the 19th century alone 12:27.060 --> 12:28.960 by doctors simply washing 12:28.960 --> 12:31.340 their hands between dealing with each patient. 12:32.240 --> 12:33.160 Glenn Seaborg 12:33.160 --> 12:34.920 as a young chemist in 1944 12:35.320 --> 12:36.660 suggested moving 12:36.660 --> 12:38.800 five elements in the periodic table 12:38.800 --> 12:40.540 to be with the lanthanides 12:40.540 --> 12:42.720 below the existing periodic table. 12:43.560 --> 12:44.900 His colleagues advised him 12:44.900 --> 12:46.620 Glenn do not do this 12:46.620 --> 12:48.980 you will ruin your scientific reputation. 12:49.780 --> 12:50.980 Seaborg decided 12:50.980 --> 12:53.160 he did not have a scientific reputation 12:53.160 --> 12:55.700 and went ahead receiving the Nobel Prize 12:55.700 --> 12:57.140 in 1951 12:57.140 --> 12:58.860 for his contribution to chemistry. 12:59.900 --> 13:01.680 People who oppose grand narratives 13:01.680 --> 13:03.380 or ruling paradigms 13:03.380 --> 13:06.380 are often referred to as conspiracy theorists. 13:06.840 --> 13:07.880 A pejorative term 13:07.880 --> 13:10.260 often leading to ridicule and rejection. 13:11.240 --> 13:12.180 Historical figures 13:12.180 --> 13:13.640 such as Pythagoras 13:13.640 --> 13:14.680 Hippocrates 13:14.680 --> 13:16.300 Claudius Ptolemy 13:16.750 --> 13:17.980 Coprenicus Kepler 13:17.980 --> 13:19.960 Isaac Newton and Pasteur 13:19.960 --> 13:22.780 were all at first conspiracy theorists 13:22.780 --> 13:24.100 exposing anomalies 13:24.600 --> 13:26.300 devising new theories 13:26.300 --> 13:28.960 and eventually new and better paradigms. 13:29.360 --> 13:30.900 But when anomalies are 13:30.900 --> 13:32.120 observed in heliocentricity 13:32.900 --> 13:33.980 today for example 13:33.980 --> 13:35.820 they are more often than not 13:35.820 --> 13:38.340 dismissed, ignored, and ridiculed. 13:39.360 --> 13:39.980 One of the main 13:39.980 --> 13:41.900 problems with mainstream sciences 13:41.900 --> 13:43.940 scientists become the sole 13:43.940 --> 13:45.900 arbiters and critics of their own 13:45.900 --> 13:48.400 paradigm beliefs and lose their flexibility. 13:49.080 --> 13:49.340 Become 13:49.880 --> 13:51.340 concretized making change 13:51.560 --> 13:52.020 impossible. 13:53.080 --> 13:55.060 Astronomy is a typical example 13:55.060 --> 13:57.700 of a monolithic closed elite group 13:57.700 --> 14:00.340 ignoring any other cosmological models. 14:01.180 --> 14:02.100 Richard Tarnas 14:02.100 --> 14:02.460 comments 14:02.460 --> 14:05.460 to an extent never consciously recognized 14:05.460 --> 14:06.240 by scientists 14:06.240 --> 14:08.760 the nature of scientific practice 14:08.760 --> 14:12.060 makes its governing paradigms self-validating. 14:12.440 --> 14:13.720 The paradigms act 14:13.720 --> 14:15.460 as a lens through which every 14:15.460 --> 14:17.380 observation is filled and is 14:17.380 --> 14:18.920 maintained as an authoritative 14:18.920 --> 14:20.420 bulwark by convention. 14:21.260 --> 14:22.500 Through teachers and texts 14:22.500 --> 14:25.140 scientific pedagogy sustains 14:25.140 --> 14:26.620 the inherited paradigms 14:26.620 --> 14:28.320 and ratifies its credibility 14:28.320 --> 14:31.060 tending to produce firmness of conviction 14:31.060 --> 14:32.840 and theoretical rigidity 14:32.840 --> 14:34.500 not unlike education 14:34.500 --> 14:36.320 in systematic neurology. 14:36.860 --> 14:38.540 Fixed on immovable ideas 14:38.540 --> 14:40.780 paradigms become concretized 14:40.780 --> 14:43.060 and this supplies it to theological 14:43.060 --> 14:43.560 thinking. 14:44.400 --> 14:46.800 In theology it is called dogma 14:46.800 --> 14:49.020 for every observed fact 14:49.020 --> 14:51.160 presupposes an interpretive 14:51.160 --> 14:51.480 focus. 14:52.660 --> 14:54.560 In science these conjectures 14:54.560 --> 14:57.080 must be continually and systematically 14:57.080 --> 14:57.680 tested. 14:58.140 --> 15:00.260 At any time a new test 15:00.260 --> 15:01.640 could falsify it. 15:02.700 --> 15:04.760 One of the great difficulties of experimental 15:04.760 --> 15:06.700 research is how the results 15:06.700 --> 15:09.020 are interpreted. Tarnas continues 15:09.020 --> 15:10.940 the problematic conclusion 15:10.940 --> 15:13.200 was reinforced by the newly critical 15:13.200 --> 15:15.340 approach to philosophy and the history 15:15.340 --> 15:17.540 of science influenced above all 15:17.540 --> 15:19.260 by the work of Carl Popper 15:19.260 --> 15:20.360 and Thomas Kuhn 15:20.800 --> 15:23.320 drawing on the insights of Hume and Kant. 15:23.940 --> 15:24.720 Popper noted 15:24.720 --> 15:27.000 that science can never produce knowledge 15:27.000 --> 15:29.080 that is certain or even probable. 15:29.880 --> 15:31.180 Man serves the universe 15:31.180 --> 15:33.140 as a stranger making imaginative 15:33.660 --> 15:35.280 guesses about its structure 15:35.280 --> 15:36.140 and workings. 15:36.140 --> 15:38.160 According to Kuhn 15:38.160 --> 15:40.260 a paradigm is said to be complete 15:40.260 --> 15:42.020 when there are no longer any 15:42.020 --> 15:43.140 questions to ask. 15:43.920 --> 15:46.440 He suggests that two paradigms in particular 15:46.440 --> 15:48.340 may be considered to be complete 15:48.340 --> 15:49.640 the pendulum 15:49.640 --> 15:51.840 eventually mathematically modeled 15:51.840 --> 15:53.940 by Isaac Newton and Newton's 15:53.940 --> 15:56.100 optics but this is open 15:56.100 --> 15:57.920 to debate. The danger 15:57.920 --> 16:00.200 is when people stop asking questions 16:00.200 --> 16:02.500 and concretization sets in. 16:03.080 --> 16:04.060 There are however 16:04.060 --> 16:06.260 stable paradigms such as Thomas 16:06.260 --> 16:07.900 Young's wave theory of light 16:07.900 --> 16:10.280 and later wave particle duality 16:10.280 --> 16:12.200 and other fully quantitative 16:12.200 --> 16:14.280 paradigms such as thermodynamics 16:14.820 --> 16:16.380 with theory of light 16:16.380 --> 16:18.080 and electromagnetic spectrum 16:18.080 --> 16:20.000 all of which have produced 16:20.000 --> 16:22.020 laws of science demonstrated 16:22.020 --> 16:24.260 by making very accurate predictions. 16:24.920 --> 16:26.160 Realistically speaking 16:26.160 --> 16:28.480 it can be argued no paradigm 16:28.480 --> 16:30.380 is complete and must surrender 16:30.380 --> 16:32.340 itself to eventual adjustments 16:32.340 --> 16:33.040 and changes. 16:34.280 --> 16:36.000 Arguably paradigms are never 16:36.000 --> 16:37.920 really complete because there is no 16:37.920 --> 16:39.380 foreseen end to knowledge. 16:40.240 --> 16:41.500 Paradigms are important 16:41.500 --> 16:43.840 like stepping stones in pursuit of 16:43.840 --> 16:45.600 scientific truth and must 16:45.600 --> 16:47.640 inevitably change in order for 16:47.640 --> 16:49.420 science to grow and move forward. 16:50.140 --> 16:51.680 Paradigms become necessary 16:51.680 --> 16:53.860 because eventually there is a need 16:53.860 --> 16:55.380 to define rules and laws 16:55.380 --> 16:57.020 in order to make predictions. 16:57.720 --> 17:00.020 Kuhn used the term normal science 17:00.020 --> 17:02.160 which is used to investigate anomalies 17:02.160 --> 17:03.920 within paradigms when a paradigm 17:03.920 --> 17:05.600 ceases to function effectively. 17:06.640 --> 17:07.360 Without a paradigm 17:07.640 --> 17:09.820 writing definitions, setting rules 17:09.820 --> 17:11.900 and laws, terminology and specialist 17:11.900 --> 17:13.600 language would be problematic. 17:14.360 --> 17:16.120 Kuhn discusses the defining 17:16.120 --> 17:18.300 characteristics of scientific research 17:18.300 --> 17:20.460 seeing scientific revolution 17:20.460 --> 17:21.780 through paradigm change. 17:22.840 --> 17:23.960 One of the first attempts 17:23.960 --> 17:25.800 to record and classify the sciences 17:25.800 --> 17:26.680 was Aristotle. 17:26.680 --> 17:29.080 Aristotle was a polymath, 17:29.600 --> 17:31.140 a great intellectual of his day, 17:31.700 --> 17:33.120 a philosopher, mathematician, 17:33.880 --> 17:35.540 he wrote about politics, ethics, 17:36.100 --> 17:37.280 medicine, astronomy, 17:37.800 --> 17:39.120 physics and life sciences. 17:40.140 --> 17:41.580 Aristotle expressed theories 17:41.580 --> 17:43.740 to explain phenomena as he saw it 17:43.740 --> 17:45.420 at the time within the confines 17:45.420 --> 17:47.260 of knowledge that existed at the time. 17:48.080 --> 17:49.740 The majority of Aristotle's work 17:49.740 --> 17:51.340 written in classical Greek 17:51.340 --> 17:53.280 has been lost and only about 17:53.280 --> 17:55.100 one-third had survived thanks 17:55.100 --> 17:55.880 to Arab scholars. 17:56.920 --> 17:59.580 Arabic translations reached Western Europe 17:59.580 --> 18:00.960 about the 12th century 18:00.960 --> 18:02.800 and were translated into Latin, 18:03.300 --> 18:04.600 the common language of scholars. 18:05.740 --> 18:07.340 Scholars such as Roger Bacon 18:07.340 --> 18:08.900 and Thomas Aquinas 18:08.900 --> 18:11.160 helped introduce Aristotelian 18:11.160 --> 18:12.940 philosophy into schools and 18:12.940 --> 18:14.740 university curriculums across Europe. 18:15.700 --> 18:17.120 Aristotle's surviving works 18:17.120 --> 18:18.840 give insight into the ancient 18:18.840 --> 18:20.740 Greek mindset, but also 18:20.740 --> 18:22.600 to the 21st century mindset. 18:23.540 --> 18:25.100 Aristotle's theories and ideas 18:25.100 --> 18:26.880 may seem nonsense today, 18:27.320 --> 18:28.460 but not at the time. 18:29.160 --> 18:31.160 According to Coon, one of the reasons 18:31.160 --> 18:33.300 Aristotle's plethora of paradigms 18:33.300 --> 18:34.620 lasted for so long 18:34.620 --> 18:36.900 is simply because there was nothing 18:36.900 --> 18:38.820 better. And paradigms 18:38.820 --> 18:40.520 change when they fail to answer 18:40.520 --> 18:42.480 questions and when something better 18:42.480 --> 18:44.640 comes along. But nothing better 18:44.640 --> 18:46.680 came forward until the 17th 18:46.680 --> 18:49.060 century when traditional Aristotelian 18:49.060 --> 18:50.280 ideas were challenged. 18:50.280 --> 18:52.980 Aristotle was the only text 18:52.980 --> 18:54.880 in the philosophy of science in the West 18:54.880 --> 18:57.280 and lasted for over 1600 years, 18:57.780 --> 18:59.480 but change was painfully slow. 19:00.540 --> 19:02.340 Galileo was an Aristotelian, 19:02.660 --> 19:04.040 but was one of the first to 19:04.040 --> 19:04.960 challenge Aristotle. 19:05.960 --> 19:07.460 For example, Aristotle 19:07.460 --> 19:08.920 saw the pendulum swinging 19:08.920 --> 19:10.760 as constrained falling. 19:11.380 --> 19:12.620 But Galileo, however, 19:13.060 --> 19:14.280 looked at the swinging body, 19:14.680 --> 19:16.280 saw a pendulum as a body 19:16.280 --> 19:18.100 that almost succeeded in repeating 19:18.100 --> 19:20.320 the same motion over and over again 19:20.320 --> 19:21.480 ad infinitum. 19:22.180 --> 19:23.680 The better description, of course, 19:24.040 --> 19:25.480 came from Christian Huygens. 19:26.160 --> 19:28.000 Finally, Isaac Newton presented 19:28.000 --> 19:30.140 the solution as an elegant mathematical 19:30.140 --> 19:32.400 formula which enabled the behavior 19:32.400 --> 19:34.140 of the pendulum to be fully 19:34.140 --> 19:36.160 explained, mathematically modeled, 19:36.600 --> 19:38.400 and used to make accurate predictions. 19:39.380 --> 19:40.560 Taking Hippocrates 19:40.560 --> 19:42.560 as an example, Hippocrates 19:42.560 --> 19:43.880 saw the human system 19:43.880 --> 19:45.820 composed of four humours 19:45.820 --> 19:48.040 black bile, yellow bile, 19:48.440 --> 19:49.360 phlegm, and blood. 19:50.180 --> 19:51.840 Humours were seen as chemical 19:51.840 --> 19:53.780 systems regulating human 19:53.780 --> 19:55.540 behavior, and disease 19:55.540 --> 19:57.820 was due to a deficiency in the four 19:57.820 --> 19:59.280 fluids being out of balance. 20:00.080 --> 20:01.260 Sounds like a mechanic 20:01.660 --> 20:03.700 describing the internal combustion engine, 20:04.220 --> 20:05.900 but at the time there was nothing 20:05.900 --> 20:07.280 else that even resembled 20:07.280 --> 20:09.180 what is now understood to be science, 20:09.620 --> 20:11.420 and it was all recorded and written down 20:11.420 --> 20:13.740 for posterity, and it all made sense. 20:13.740 --> 20:15.240 As Kuhn says, 20:15.780 --> 20:17.400 paradigms appear to be true 20:17.400 --> 20:18.960 at the time and make sense. 20:20.120 --> 20:21.940 The Aristotelian and Hippocratic 20:21.940 --> 20:23.600 paradigms endured for 20:23.600 --> 20:25.720 1600 years, and embraced 20:25.720 --> 20:27.500 by the greatest academic minds 20:27.500 --> 20:29.580 of the Middle Ages, through to the age 20:29.580 --> 20:30.800 of reason and enlightenment. 20:31.520 --> 20:33.380 Until something better came along, 20:33.840 --> 20:35.120 Hippocrates and Aristotle 20:35.120 --> 20:37.700 were the only recorded paradigms they had. 20:38.400 --> 20:39.980 But finding better paradigms 20:39.980 --> 20:41.620 to replace them was long 20:41.620 --> 20:42.420 and very slow. 20:43.220 --> 20:44.800 The formation of a new paradigm 20:44.800 --> 20:46.640 is often born of conflict, 20:47.020 --> 20:48.580 as new knowledge from experiment 20:48.580 --> 20:50.900 and observation arrives, more questions 20:50.900 --> 20:52.740 arise that cannot be answered 20:52.740 --> 20:55.040 by the existing paradigm, so the paradigm 20:55.040 --> 20:57.060 is often ignored, giving way 20:57.060 --> 20:58.360 to cognitive dissonance. 20:59.320 --> 21:01.480 After all, who would dare challenge 21:01.480 --> 21:03.340 the great Hippocrates, the father 21:03.340 --> 21:05.100 of medicine, and Aristotle, 21:05.620 --> 21:07.740 the godfather of evidence-based medicine, 21:08.280 --> 21:09.280 the fountain of wisdom, 21:09.280 --> 21:11.520 and founder of many scientific paradigms. 21:12.400 --> 21:13.280 But both Hippocratean 21:13.840 --> 21:15.760 and Aristotelian paradigms 21:15.760 --> 21:17.200 fell with a great crash, 21:17.620 --> 21:19.220 as research revealed more 21:19.220 --> 21:21.060 knowledge and a deeper understanding 21:21.060 --> 21:23.560 of human biology, William Harvey's 21:23.560 --> 21:25.960 blood circulation, Edward Jenner's 21:25.960 --> 21:27.780 inoculation against smallpox, 21:28.520 --> 21:30.100 Louis Pasteur's germ theory, 21:30.640 --> 21:31.980 and so many other pioneers 21:31.980 --> 21:32.700 of medicine. 21:33.680 --> 21:34.920 The Flogiston paradigm 21:34.920 --> 21:37.320 asserted that all matter is made 21:37.320 --> 21:39.520 of four elements, earth, fire, 21:39.880 --> 21:40.500 air, and water. 21:41.080 --> 21:43.240 A rather crude, simple, modern example 21:43.240 --> 21:45.380 of the Flogiston theory, with a modern 21:45.380 --> 21:47.480 twist. Take a hair comb 21:47.480 --> 21:49.140 made of recyclable plastic 21:49.140 --> 21:51.240 and gently and progressively heat 21:51.240 --> 21:53.380 the comb. The comb is at first 21:53.380 --> 21:54.560 solid, earth. 21:55.320 --> 21:57.200 Heat the comb, and it melts to a liquid, 21:57.600 --> 21:59.280 water. Continue to 21:59.280 --> 22:00.920 heat it, and it becomes a gas, 22:01.360 --> 22:02.900 air, and eventually 22:02.900 --> 22:04.360 burns, fire. 22:04.360 --> 22:06.460 What was left was 22:06.460 --> 22:07.820 Flogiston ashes. 22:08.900 --> 22:10.340 The phrenology paradigm 22:10.340 --> 22:12.160 lasted only a few decades 22:12.160 --> 22:12.780 at most. 22:13.760 --> 22:16.500 Miasma is the theory that disease was caused 22:16.500 --> 22:17.520 by bad smells. 22:18.360 --> 22:20.360 This assertion is perhaps the most 22:20.360 --> 22:22.580 extravagant manifestation of a belief 22:22.580 --> 22:24.260 that prevailed in the medical 22:24.260 --> 22:26.600 profession for much of the 19th century 22:26.600 --> 22:28.400 and survived in some quarters 22:28.400 --> 22:29.800 into the 20th century. 22:30.480 --> 22:32.360 This belief held that most, 22:32.360 --> 22:34.340 if not all, disease was 22:34.340 --> 22:35.960 caused by inhaling air 22:35.960 --> 22:38.180 that was infected through exposure to 22:38.180 --> 22:39.020 corrupting matter. 22:39.680 --> 22:42.020 Such matter might be rotting corpses, 22:42.640 --> 22:44.520 the exhalations of other people already 22:44.520 --> 22:46.080 infected, sewage, 22:46.460 --> 22:47.620 or even rotting vegetation. 22:48.580 --> 22:50.040 The miasmatical explanation 22:50.040 --> 22:52.160 of the cause of disease figured 22:52.160 --> 22:53.940 prominently in the long debates 22:53.940 --> 22:56.060 among the people who are responsible for 22:56.060 --> 22:57.820 combating the cholera epidemics 22:57.820 --> 22:59.720 that afflicted Britain between 22:59.720 --> 23:02.120 1831 and 1866. 23:03.240 --> 23:03.940 The downfall 23:03.940 --> 23:05.220 of the miasma paradigm 23:05.220 --> 23:08.040 started with a serious outbreak of typhoid 23:08.040 --> 23:09.980 fever in the 19th century London. 23:10.900 --> 23:11.740 A doctor noticed 23:11.740 --> 23:13.900 that the victims got water from the same 23:13.900 --> 23:15.880 water pump. He reasoned 23:15.880 --> 23:17.340 that the infection was from the water 23:17.340 --> 23:19.600 and had nothing to do with bad smells 23:19.600 --> 23:21.720 which was a result of poor sewage 23:21.720 --> 23:23.820 management. Other developments 23:23.820 --> 23:25.780 in Europe, such as Pasteur's 23:25.780 --> 23:27.720 germ theory, after further research 23:27.720 --> 23:29.700 and debate, the miasma paradigm 23:29.700 --> 23:30.400 was abandoned. 23:31.460 --> 23:33.380 At least two other medical paradigms 23:33.380 --> 23:35.740 fell for the same reasons as a result 23:35.740 --> 23:37.480 of observation of anomalies 23:37.480 --> 23:39.920 leading to research and new and better 23:39.920 --> 23:40.640 paradigms. 23:41.460 --> 23:43.500 The discovery of how to artificially produce 23:43.500 --> 23:45.700 insulin, the first of many hormones 23:45.700 --> 23:47.580 to be produced. Before 23:47.580 --> 23:49.700 artificial insulin, type 1 23:49.700 --> 23:51.640 diabetes was a fatal disease 23:51.640 --> 23:53.700 and most treatments were unsuccessful. 23:54.440 --> 23:56.000 But since the 1920s 23:56.000 --> 23:58.240 and until now, millions can enjoy 23:58.240 --> 23:59.480 an active and full life. 24:00.220 --> 24:01.940 A revolution in medicine based 24:01.940 --> 24:03.100 on normal research. 24:03.960 --> 24:05.960 The discovery of penicillin, based 24:05.960 --> 24:08.340 on simple observation in the 1920s, 24:08.680 --> 24:10.700 Alexander Fleming and Howard Flory 24:10.700 --> 24:12.900 saved millions of lives of people 24:12.900 --> 24:14.720 including World War II soldiers 24:14.720 --> 24:16.120 on the battlefields. 24:16.340 --> 24:18.160 Before penicillin, people could 24:18.160 --> 24:20.020 die from simple grazes and wounds 24:20.020 --> 24:21.540 by bacterial infection. 24:22.260 --> 24:24.480 This is another example of a revolution 24:24.480 --> 24:25.940 based on science research 24:25.940 --> 24:28.160 where old paradigms are swept away 24:28.160 --> 24:30.780 and replaced by new and better paradigms. 24:31.520 --> 24:32.620 The Pythagoreans 24:32.620 --> 24:34.620 were a Grecian cult who existed 24:34.620 --> 24:37.080 in Magna Grisha, a Greek colony 24:37.080 --> 24:38.100 on the Toa of Italy. 24:38.980 --> 24:40.440 They believed that the whole world 24:40.440 --> 24:42.720 including the many scientific phenomena 24:42.720 --> 24:44.600 could be explained by rational 24:44.600 --> 24:45.080 numbers. 24:46.040 --> 24:48.020 A rational number is a real number 24:48.020 --> 24:49.860 and can be expressed as an integer, 24:50.440 --> 24:51.940 a whole number, or a fraction 24:51.940 --> 24:54.400 for example 1, 2, 3, 24:54.760 --> 24:55.700 negative 1, 24:55.940 --> 24:57.600 negative 2, negative 3 24:57.600 --> 24:59.920 or 3 quarters, 1 half, 1 24:59.920 --> 25:01.920 5th. But the square root 25:01.920 --> 25:03.980 of 2 is irrational 25:03.980 --> 25:05.720 and cannot be expressed 25:05.720 --> 25:06.440 numerically. 25:07.140 --> 25:09.540 But the square root of 2 can be drawn 25:09.540 --> 25:11.120 so it must exist, 25:11.300 --> 25:13.200 but as an irrational number. 25:14.400 --> 25:15.940 The Pythagoreans were absolutists, 25:16.960 --> 25:18.040 rigid and immovable 25:18.040 --> 25:19.840 and this was the reason their 25:19.840 --> 25:20.700 paradigm crumbled. 25:21.720 --> 25:23.700 What did the Pythagoreans do when they 25:23.700 --> 25:25.580 recognized their fundamental beliefs 25:25.580 --> 25:27.800 were wrong? Did they say something 25:27.800 --> 25:29.140 like, sorry guys, 25:29.620 --> 25:31.620 we made a mistake, but never mind 25:31.620 --> 25:33.780 let's take it on the chin and move on? 25:34.420 --> 25:36.300 No, they made it a secret 25:36.300 --> 25:38.320 and anyone who told the secret 25:38.320 --> 25:39.140 was murdered. 25:39.880 --> 25:42.080 Such is the power of secret societies. 25:43.020 --> 25:44.640 Hippias of Metapontum, 25:44.940 --> 25:46.100 a Pythagorean philosopher 25:46.100 --> 25:47.780 was drowned at sea 25:47.780 --> 25:49.920 for breaking the Pythagorean rules 25:49.920 --> 25:51.760 and secrecy, showing that some 25:51.760 --> 25:53.760 numbers cannot be expressed as rational 25:53.760 --> 25:55.720 numbers and thus exposing the 25:55.720 --> 25:57.800 falsity of Pythagorean dogma. 25:58.600 --> 25:59.720 Now this does not seem 25:59.720 --> 26:01.420 a big deal in this day and age, 26:01.760 --> 26:03.580 but it was at the time because 26:03.580 --> 26:05.600 the Pythagoreans were rigid and 26:05.600 --> 26:07.120 concretized in their beliefs, 26:07.620 --> 26:09.040 embracing many absolutes 26:09.040 --> 26:10.900 and were unable to compromise, 26:11.620 --> 26:13.860 an attitude that still exists today 26:13.860 --> 26:15.220 in modern astronomy. 26:15.220 --> 26:17.260 The irrational number 26:17.260 --> 26:19.480 was an anomaly, and anomalies 26:19.480 --> 26:21.440 are important and should never be 26:21.440 --> 26:23.540 ignored. The square root 26:23.540 --> 26:25.720 of 2 must exist because it 26:25.720 --> 26:27.640 can be drawn, but it cannot 26:27.640 --> 26:29.280 be expressed fully in rational 26:29.280 --> 26:31.460 numbers. Astronomers 26:31.460 --> 26:33.360 today, who do research only 26:33.360 --> 26:35.280 to confirm their beliefs, rather 26:35.280 --> 26:37.280 than make new discoveries, make 26:37.280 --> 26:39.440 the same error as the Pythagoreans. 26:40.020 --> 26:41.360 They claim the mean distances 26:41.360 --> 26:43.040 of planets and the sun from 26:43.040 --> 26:44.380 Earth are absolutes. 26:45.120 --> 26:46.900 They claim the mean distance of the sun 26:46.900 --> 26:49.000 from Earth is 93 million miles 26:49.000 --> 26:51.260 and make this value an absolute, 26:51.640 --> 26:53.040 called the astronomical 26:53.040 --> 26:54.320 unit, AU, 26:55.140 --> 26:56.940 in which all measurements to stars, 26:57.360 --> 26:58.880 planets and distant galaxies 26:58.880 --> 27:01.200 are measured. But a closer study 27:01.200 --> 27:03.000 shows this distance is 27:03.000 --> 27:05.180 undetermined and no more than a guess. 27:06.320 --> 27:07.920 Recall David Hume's example. 27:08.540 --> 27:09.820 All swans are white, 27:10.460 --> 27:11.580 but this is only true 27:11.580 --> 27:13.620 until a swan of a different color 27:13.620 --> 27:15.760 is found. Then the absolute 27:15.760 --> 27:16.840 fact crumbles. 27:17.840 --> 27:19.420 History shows that scientists 27:19.420 --> 27:21.480 should be very careful before 27:21.480 --> 27:22.920 declaring absolutes. 27:24.080 --> 27:25.840 Another example is Max Müller, 27:26.240 --> 27:27.700 who wrote a pamphlet challenging 27:27.700 --> 27:29.620 Charles Darwin on the evolution 27:29.620 --> 27:31.760 of human language. Darwin 27:31.760 --> 27:33.440 called Müller a dangerous 27:33.440 --> 27:35.480 man. Why was Müller 27:35.480 --> 27:37.520 dangerous? Because Müller 27:37.520 --> 27:39.580 claimed that language was 27:39.580 --> 27:41.100 limited at the beginning and could 27:41.100 --> 27:43.000 not develop from grunts and groans 27:43.000 --> 27:45.340 of primitive man. This was 27:45.340 --> 27:46.980 seen as a threat to the new 27:46.980 --> 27:48.100 evolution paradigm. 27:49.080 --> 27:51.220 This claim is supported by Noam Chomsky, 27:51.680 --> 27:53.380 an American theoretical linguist 27:53.380 --> 27:55.700 born in 1928 who argued 27:55.700 --> 27:57.400 that a single chance mutation 27:57.400 --> 27:59.160 occurring in one individual 27:59.160 --> 28:01.260 in the order of 100,000 years 28:01.260 --> 28:03.440 ago instantaneously installing 28:03.440 --> 28:05.520 the language faculty, a component 28:05.520 --> 28:07.540 of the mind-brain in perfect 28:07.540 --> 28:09.560 or near-perfect form was 28:09.560 --> 28:11.120 hard to accept or prove. 28:12.040 --> 28:13.680 Similarly, when heliocentrists 28:14.280 --> 28:15.980 today are confronted by 28:15.980 --> 28:17.860 alternative models presenting 28:17.860 --> 28:19.660 plausible evidence based 28:19.660 --> 28:21.360 on observation and simple 28:21.360 --> 28:23.420 experiments, they feel threatened 28:23.420 --> 28:25.660 and react accordingly and 28:25.660 --> 28:27.440 often retaliate with ridicule. 28:28.320 --> 28:29.780 Beliefs deeply entrenched 28:29.780 --> 28:31.380 in the mind have become 28:31.380 --> 28:33.500 concretized and rigid dogma 28:33.500 --> 28:35.640 and asking the wrong questions 28:35.640 --> 28:37.980 undermines deeply entrenched beliefs. 28:39.120 --> 28:40.620 Beliefs are often established 28:40.620 --> 28:42.820 in childhood by parents or teachers 28:42.820 --> 28:45.100 and as they grow it becomes 28:45.100 --> 28:46.440 unchallengeable truth. 28:47.420 --> 28:48.720 The old Jesuit saying 28:48.720 --> 28:50.720 give me a boy until he is 28:50.720 --> 28:52.700 seven and I will give you the man 28:52.700 --> 28:54.300 may well be true 28:54.300 --> 28:56.540 since the brain is soft and flexible 28:56.540 --> 28:59.040 in the early years and early conditioning 28:59.040 --> 29:00.180 is hard to remove. 29:00.900 --> 29:02.820 So new ideas are always met 29:02.820 --> 29:04.780 with suspicion and healthy skepticism. 29:05.640 --> 29:06.560 And so it should be. 29:07.200 --> 29:09.200 When long-standing beliefs are challenged 29:09.200 --> 29:11.760 they nearly always encounter resistance 29:11.760 --> 29:13.700 at a sociocultural level. 29:14.960 --> 29:16.220 One of the problems of research 29:16.220 --> 29:18.280 is interpretation of the results. 29:19.100 --> 29:20.520 Experiments often conform 29:20.520 --> 29:22.040 to the beliefs and expectations 29:22.040 --> 29:23.440 of the experimenter 29:23.440 --> 29:24.840 and data is evaluated 29:24.840 --> 29:26.960 through the existing paradigm lens. 29:27.940 --> 29:29.200 A good example is the 29:29.200 --> 29:31.400 floggaston paradigm referred to earlier. 29:32.280 --> 29:33.240 The ancient Greeks 29:33.240 --> 29:34.640 believed that all matter 29:34.640 --> 29:36.280 was made from four elements 29:36.280 --> 29:38.660 fire, earth, air and water. 29:39.380 --> 29:40.820 An Aristotelian paradigm 29:40.820 --> 29:42.600 that was accepted for centuries 29:42.600 --> 29:45.080 by the finest minds of both the ancients 29:45.080 --> 29:46.440 and the medieval period 29:47.100 --> 29:49.160 recast in the 17th century scientists. 29:50.060 --> 29:51.540 But it was the element of air 29:51.540 --> 29:53.420 that proved to be its undoing. 29:54.020 --> 29:55.260 Floggaston was thought 29:55.260 --> 29:56.880 to be a substance without odor, 29:57.220 --> 29:58.100 mass or color. 29:58.860 --> 30:00.700 When a substance burned to ash 30:00.700 --> 30:02.140 a theoretical substance 30:02.700 --> 30:03.760 floggaston was released. 30:04.600 --> 30:06.540 What are now known as elemental gases 30:06.540 --> 30:08.880 in the 17th and 18th centuries 30:08.880 --> 30:10.720 were known as types of air. 30:11.660 --> 30:12.700 In the 18th century 30:12.700 --> 30:14.600 Joseph Priestley believed 30:14.600 --> 30:16.400 he had isolated floggaston 30:16.400 --> 30:17.540 as a pure substance. 30:18.520 --> 30:20.880 Joseph Priestley and Henry Cavendish 30:20.880 --> 30:22.240 both made a discovery 30:22.240 --> 30:24.600 of something when experimenting with gases 30:24.600 --> 30:26.300 they called them airs. 30:26.780 --> 30:28.580 So when Henry Cavendish discovered 30:28.580 --> 30:31.040 a combustible gas with no odor or color 30:31.040 --> 30:32.940 and was effectively weightless 30:33.120 --> 30:34.700 he believed he had discovered 30:34.700 --> 30:36.500 the substance called floggaston. 30:37.420 --> 30:38.660 Priestley discovered that 30:38.660 --> 30:40.620 when red mercury oxide was 30:40.620 --> 30:42.560 strongly heated it yielded 30:42.560 --> 30:44.200 an air that was combustible. 30:44.820 --> 30:46.980 When French chemist Anton Levasier 30:46.980 --> 30:48.880 heard of Priestley's experiment 30:48.880 --> 30:50.220 he was doubtful 30:50.220 --> 30:52.800 and repeated Priestley's experiment in reverse 30:52.800 --> 30:54.820 by heating elemental mercury 30:54.820 --> 30:56.840 and producing mercury oxide. 30:56.840 --> 30:58.820 In his experiment 30:58.820 --> 31:01.100 contrary to the floggaston paradigm 31:01.100 --> 31:02.780 which suggested that when 31:02.780 --> 31:03.820 substances burned 31:03.820 --> 31:05.340 substance was lost. 31:05.940 --> 31:07.780 But Levasier's reverse experiment 31:07.780 --> 31:09.540 showed something was gained 31:09.540 --> 31:12.240 because the resultant product weighed more 31:12.240 --> 31:13.800 than the original mass of mercury 31:13.800 --> 31:16.100 so something appears to have been added. 31:16.920 --> 31:18.220 This was the final blow 31:18.220 --> 31:19.580 to the floggaston paradigm 31:19.580 --> 31:21.580 which was gradually abandoned. 31:22.320 --> 31:24.300 Kuhn suggests Levasier's 31:24.300 --> 31:26.700 observation was a scientific revolution 31:26.700 --> 31:28.360 that contributed to another 31:28.360 --> 31:29.540 scientific revolution 31:29.540 --> 31:31.980 in the understanding of the structure of matter 31:31.980 --> 31:34.120 and the development of modern chemistry. 31:34.840 --> 31:36.520 It was the reaction of Priestley 31:36.520 --> 31:38.340 and Cavendish, both believers 31:38.340 --> 31:40.420 in floggaston to Levasier's 31:40.420 --> 31:42.360 experiment that is of great interest. 31:43.200 --> 31:44.240 They evaluated their 31:44.240 --> 31:46.120 experimental results in terms 31:46.120 --> 31:48.440 of the ruling paradigm, floggaston 31:48.440 --> 31:49.600 within the framework 31:49.600 --> 31:51.380 of a presupposed paradigm. 31:51.380 --> 31:54.040 Their experiments were no doubt 31:54.040 --> 31:56.100 paradigm-driven and carried out 31:56.100 --> 31:57.620 to conform an existing belief 31:57.620 --> 31:59.740 assuming the belief was valid 31:59.740 --> 32:00.700 in the first instance. 32:01.600 --> 32:03.080 Levasier on the other hand 32:03.080 --> 32:05.020 used a scientific methodology 32:05.020 --> 32:07.180 that completely changed the understanding 32:07.180 --> 32:08.480 of the nature of matter 32:08.480 --> 32:10.440 resulting in a new paradigm 32:10.440 --> 32:12.540 the particulate theory of matter 32:13.190 --> 32:14.960 the belief that matter is constructed 32:14.960 --> 32:16.360 from atoms and molecules 32:17.140 --> 32:18.660 floggaston was swept away 32:18.660 --> 32:21.540 whether Cavendish continued to accept 32:21.540 --> 32:23.320 the floggaston theory is doubtful 32:23.320 --> 32:24.780 but Joseph Priestley 32:24.780 --> 32:26.780 showed no change and died 32:26.780 --> 32:28.320 still embracing the belief. 32:28.880 --> 32:31.400 This example shows how difficult it is 32:31.400 --> 32:33.000 to dislodge ruling paradigms 32:33.400 --> 32:35.000 that are so deeply entrenched 32:35.000 --> 32:36.100 in the human psyche. 32:36.640 --> 32:38.880 It also shows how the new ideas 32:38.880 --> 32:40.500 theories and paradigms 32:40.500 --> 32:42.300 are very difficult to establish 32:42.300 --> 32:45.000 largely because of sociocultural 32:45.000 --> 32:46.300 and peer pressures. 32:46.300 --> 32:48.380 Most college courses 32:48.380 --> 32:49.960 use inductive teaching 32:49.960 --> 32:51.940 where the student learns from textbooks 32:51.940 --> 32:53.920 in order to pass examinations 32:53.920 --> 32:56.340 and assumes the textbooks are correct. 32:57.180 --> 32:58.960 Deductive learning on the other hand 32:58.960 --> 33:01.160 is where the students conduct experiments 33:01.160 --> 33:03.500 and are allowed to draw their own conclusions 33:03.500 --> 33:05.260 on the basis of the results 33:05.260 --> 33:06.340 of their own experiments. 33:07.080 --> 33:08.740 The problem with inductive teaching 33:08.740 --> 33:10.180 is when new research 33:10.180 --> 33:11.440 contradicts the textbook 33:11.440 --> 33:13.480 the textbook becomes obsolete 33:13.480 --> 33:16.240 and every textbook would have to be revised 33:16.240 --> 33:17.160 and reprinted. 33:17.760 --> 33:19.560 Kuhn comments that when a past 33:19.560 --> 33:21.000 paradigm is repudiated 33:21.000 --> 33:23.360 the scientific community simultaneously 33:23.360 --> 33:25.560 renounces as a fit subject 33:25.560 --> 33:26.800 for professional scrutiny 33:26.800 --> 33:28.560 most of the books and articles 33:28.560 --> 33:30.460 in which that paradigm is embodied. 33:31.120 --> 33:32.960 Most students and their teachers 33:33.180 --> 33:34.860 rely heavily upon the textbook 33:34.860 --> 33:37.560 and Kuhn notes until the very last 33:37.560 --> 33:39.600 stages in the education of a scientist 33:39.600 --> 33:41.660 textbooks are systematically 33:41.660 --> 33:43.860 substituted for the creative scientific 33:43.860 --> 33:45.900 literature that made them possible. 33:46.800 --> 33:48.180 This reinforces any 33:48.180 --> 33:50.040 indoctrination and conditioning 33:50.040 --> 33:52.060 the student may have been subjected to. 33:53.000 --> 33:53.920 How is it possible 33:53.920 --> 33:55.060 according to Kuhn 33:55.060 --> 33:57.360 to know whether a paradigm is creaking 33:57.360 --> 33:58.640 and needs to change? 33:59.340 --> 34:00.860 Kuhn's answer is simple 34:01.320 --> 34:03.320 when there are too many anomalies 34:03.320 --> 34:05.180 this leads to crisis 34:05.180 --> 34:07.600 and crises lead to revolution 34:07.600 --> 34:09.660 and in turn revolution 34:09.660 --> 34:11.580 leads to paradigm change. 34:12.380 --> 34:13.920 Anomalies are important 34:13.920 --> 34:15.240 and drive research. 34:16.080 --> 34:17.100 Astronomers however 34:17.460 --> 34:19.140 ignore embarrassing questions 34:19.140 --> 34:20.460 as shall be seen. 34:21.360 --> 34:23.400 Astronomers do no more research 34:23.400 --> 34:26.240 because they believe they have found the absolute truth 34:26.240 --> 34:27.540 and consequently 34:27.540 --> 34:29.520 are unable to move forward 34:29.520 --> 34:30.960 and see new perspectives. 34:31.860 --> 34:33.480 They cannot repair the house 34:33.480 --> 34:34.600 that is falling down 34:34.600 --> 34:36.460 because they cannot see 34:36.460 --> 34:38.880 blinded by their own group pride 34:38.880 --> 34:40.820 refusing to listen 34:40.820 --> 34:41.560 to the critics.