18 July 18

The American philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn was born on this date in 1922. He introduced the phrase "paradigm shift" in his 1962 book, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." The fundamental idea comes from the complete reversal of perspective when our understanding of physics and astronomy changed (in the 16th century) from the earth-centered system of Ptolemy to the sun-centered focus of Copernicus. This was not simply progressive growth of knowledge; it took decades of hostile debates and attrition (dying off of traditional "authorities") before the Copernican view "won" the position of established truth. Closer to our own time, the 19th/20th-century paradigm shifts in physics (Planck, Einstein, Schrödinger, Heisenberg), chemistry (Kekulé, Bohr, Pauling), and biology (Darwin, Watson, Crick, Franklin, Keller) are examples of newer "revolutions" in science. My Dilbert Casual Day tie, on the other hand, shows excellent irony about the recent shift in business attire, asking whether the new paradigm's focus on informality might have "gone too far?"