On Revolutions in Science

by Gerald Huth on March 19, 2006

The following is another bit of abstracted text from Arthur Koestler’s “Ghost in the Machine”, pp168-169:

“………The revolutions in science are successful escapes from blind alleys. The evolution of knowledge is continuous only during those periods of consolidation and elaboration which follow a major break-through. Sooner or later, however, consolidation leads to increasing rigidity, orthodoxy, and so into the dead end of overspecialization. – to the koala bear. Eventually there is a crisis and a new ‘break-through’ out of the blind alley – followed by another period of consolidation, a new orthodoxy, and so the cycle starts again.

But the new theoretical structure which emerges from the break-through is not built on top of the previous edifice; it branches out from the point where progress has gone wrong……….”

GCH

  • Share/Bookmark

Leave a Comment

Previous post:

Next post: