Kuhn and paradigms of sciences
The notion paradigm has ancient origins in the history of philosophical thought . It was utilized both by Plato and by Aristotle . In the social sciences its use has been inflated and confused by multiple and different meanings: these range from a synonym for theory to an internal subdivision of a theory, from a system of ideas of a pre-scientific nature to a school of thought? From an exemplary research procedure to the equivalent of method/It seems useful therefore briefly to review the meaning given to the concept of the paradigm by the scholar who, In the 1960s ?brought it once again to the attention of philosophers and sociologist of science. We are referring to Thomas Kuhn and his celebrated easy The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962).
Reflecting one the historical development of the sciences, Kuhn refuted the traditional understanding of the sciences as a cumulative and linear progression of new acquisitions.
According to Kuhn, however, while this is the process of science in “normal” times, there are also “revolutionary” moments, in which the continuity with the past is broken and a new construction is begun, just as – to take up the building metaphor again – from time to time, an old brick building is blown up to make room for a structurally different one, for example a skyscraper made of glass and aluminium.
Kuhn defines normal science as those phases in a scientific discipline during which a given paradigm, amply agreed to by the scientific community, predominates. During this phase, as long as the operating paradigm is not replaced by another in a ‘revolutionary’ manner, a scientific discipline does indeed develop in that linear and cumulative way that has been attributed to the whole of scientific development.
[1, 9-10 c.]
Emil Durkheim
Emil Durkheim (Emile Durkheim) was born in 1858 in Epinal (Lorraine). In 1882 it left the Higher Normal school in Paris and began to teach philosophy in lyceums. In 1886-1902 he gave lectures at Bordeaux university, and since 1902 was the professor in Sorbonne where headed one of first-ever chairs of sociology.
In 1898-1913 E. Durkheim issued the magazine «Sociological year-book». The staff of magazine, adherents of sociological views of E. Durkheim, were the center so-called of «the French sociological school», taking a leading place in the European sociology till 30th years of the XX century. E .Durkheim in 1917 in Fonteblo near Paris died.
Among E. Durkheim's devoted to studying of religion the works, it is necessary to allocate especially his latest book «Elementary forms of religious life. Totemistichesky system in Australia» (1912).
E. Durkheim defended specific nature of social reality and its paramount value in formation and regulation of consciousness and behavior of the person. Proceeding from it, it openly proclaimed religion the social phenomenon. In a counterbalance E. Durkheim proved to concepts of an origin of religion existing in its time that no supervision of the person neither over external, nor over the own nature could generate religious beliefs. These beliefs could arise only in society, in the sphere of collective representations which the person receives not from the personal experience but which are imposed to it by the public environment. E. Durkheim allocated for religion an important role in life of society and argued that it will exist until there is a mankind, changing only the forms.
Durkheim's seminal monograph, Suicide (1897), a case study of suicide rates amongst Catholic and Protestant populations, distinguished sociological analysis from psychology or philosophy. By carefully examining suicide statistics in different police districts, he attempted to demonstrate that Catholic communities have a lower suicide rate than that of Protestants, something he attributed to social (as opposed to individual or psychological) causes. He developed the notion of objective suis generis "social facts" to delineate a unique empirical object for the science of sociology to study.[8] Through such studies he posited that sociology would be able to determine whether any given society is 'healthy' or 'pathological', and seek social reform to negate organic breakdown or "social anomie". For Durkheim, sociology could be described as the "science of institutions, their genesis and their functioning".[4, p.45]