"It is, I think, particularly in periods of acknowledged crisis that scientists have turned to philosophical analysis as a device for unlocking the riddles of their field. Scientists have not generally needed or wanted to be philosophers"
About this Quote
Kuhn is slipping the knife into science’s self-image: the lab coat may look like pure method, but the emergency exit is almost always philosophy. He’s talking about those moments when the normal machinery of a field stops producing satisfying answers, when anomalies pile up and the usual fixes feel like duct tape. In that kind of acknowledged crisis, scientists suddenly start asking the supposedly “unscientific” questions: What counts as an explanation? What is an observation? Which problems are even worth solving? That’s philosophical analysis, whether they admit it or not.
The second sentence lands as a dry, faintly accusatory punchline. Scientists “have not generally needed or wanted to be philosophers” isn’t praise of practical-minded empiricism; it’s a diagnosis of how disciplines protect their prestige. Philosophy gets treated as overhead, a luxury or a distraction, until the billing arrives. Kuhn’s subtext is that “normal science” runs on inherited assumptions it doesn’t examine because it doesn’t have to. The refusal to be philosophical is less intellectual humility than institutional comfort.
Context matters: Kuhn wrote amid mid-century upheavals in physics and the rise of formal philosophy of science. In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, he argues that scientific progress isn’t a smooth accumulation of facts but a series of paradigm-bound routines punctuated by disruptive shifts. This quote captures the hinge: philosophy isn’t the enemy of science; it’s the tool scientists reach for when their paradigm’s silent rules stop working, and the field has to renegotiate reality’s terms.
The second sentence lands as a dry, faintly accusatory punchline. Scientists “have not generally needed or wanted to be philosophers” isn’t praise of practical-minded empiricism; it’s a diagnosis of how disciplines protect their prestige. Philosophy gets treated as overhead, a luxury or a distraction, until the billing arrives. Kuhn’s subtext is that “normal science” runs on inherited assumptions it doesn’t examine because it doesn’t have to. The refusal to be philosophical is less intellectual humility than institutional comfort.
Context matters: Kuhn wrote amid mid-century upheavals in physics and the rise of formal philosophy of science. In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, he argues that scientific progress isn’t a smooth accumulation of facts but a series of paradigm-bound routines punctuated by disruptive shifts. This quote captures the hinge: philosophy isn’t the enemy of science; it’s the tool scientists reach for when their paradigm’s silent rules stop working, and the field has to renegotiate reality’s terms.
Quote Details
| Topic | Reason & Logic |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
More Quotes by Thomas
Add to List
