Kuhn & Foucault Essay

According to Esther Diaz, in science we can find different stages in the process of an investigation:

• Basic investigation: it refers to the investigation per se, the pursuit of knowledge without any interest behind. Here, the aim is only to expand our knowledge, and there are no plans to apply it in any other field. The investigation can be subside or not, but the scientist choses the topic he/she wants to investigate.

• Orientated basic investigation: Here, the topic to be searched is given by the institution which finances the project. Still, there are no plans to apply it in any other field.

• Applied investigation: the same as in the previous stage, the difference is that the obtained knowledge is used to create a scientific theory, a possible solution/method/plan for a real problem appears although it is not applied yet. This projects could modify the world as we know it.

• Technology: in this stage the solution/method/plan obtained from the investigation is finally applied to reality. We can see them in the form of military devices, high-tech computers, wireless communication, vaccines, politics to solve social problems, etc.

Esther Diaz also highlights the concept of scientific progress according to two philosophers: Thomas Kuhn and Michel Foucault.

Thomas Kuhn established that science can be compared to social revolutions. He says that science doesn’t have an indefinite progress. The changes that take place in science are caused by the establishment of a new paradigm. A paradigm is the set of scientific theories/techniques/laws that provide (for a period of time) answers and a model of knowledge to a specific scientific community.

So how does a paradigm establishes? When problems arise, different scientific theories appear to try to solve this problems, until the scientific community chooses one of the theories as the best (the strongest is the winner) and a period of normal science is established. This is the new paradigm. Of course there are still problems happening around, but as long as this paradigm can give solutions to it, the paradigm keeps working. But when the solutions proposed by the paradigm are not enough anymore, a crisis begins, a period of scientific revolution starts and new scientific theories appear to fight to establish as the new paradigm.

Michel Foucault says that science can be compared to cultural-historical events. Episteme: the set of knowledge of a specific culture or society. There is not a better episteme than another. They are just different, they can’t be compared.

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