The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

I'm not quite sure what the others are talking about.

The reader was adequate. He certainly wasn't superbly engaging, but neither was he so horrible as to make the book unlistenable.

I was quite able to at least get the idea after a single listening, and so I don't think this is a bad format for less strenuous digestion of "Structure." Indeed, if you listen to it many times it might serve to totally replace the book.

Perhaps it is right to say that academic books usually reward slow readings and re-readings while stopping occasionally to consider what's being said or what has been said. The pause and reverse buttons can facilitate some of this with an audio book, but obviously this type of digestion of a work is more suited to reading than to listening. However, for a first time read-through this audio book will more than serve.

Thomas Kuhn's famous "Structure of Scientific Revolutions", today taken as classical text about the history of Science, is of amazing importance to understanding of the evolution of science.

Kuhn was the first who elucidated the concept of PARADIGM in a relation to science. Paradigm, which we should understand as a pattern of thought - rather than a theory or model, is the pervasive component of almost any human intellectual activity.

Kuhn proves that the evolution in science goes in a revolutionary way, by a process called "paradigm shift" which is usually abrupt and fast. One of the symptoms of the paradigm shift is the process of textbook rewriting - when the change appears to be unavoidable and untenable to the previous paradigm. Kuhn describes Copernican revolution, progress in chemistry, Newtonian physics, quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory or relativity as the key examples illustrating his concept.

Very good book - should not be too difficult to read even to those who did not practice science.

I think, there is also another reason to read it.

When reading it I could not avoid thinking about the another field of activity where we witness revolutions and paradigm shifts: the history of Web. The web grown to today's size, mostly between 1995 to 2000 - in just 6 years it has changed so much - media, knowledge ...

And, when we recall that the HTML was created in 1980, and HTTP in 1989 - we see that initially the old paradigm of communication was still prevailing. Until Netscape came with its killing application - the browser - and made the shift.

And I'm almost sure we are at the footsteps of another paradigm shift - that between today's web of documents and tomorrow's web of data (aka Semantic Web). Kuhn's book teaches us that it is not very easy to predict when will it happen, and that we probably will witness some dramatic changes. It also explains the latency with SW adoption.

an excellent reading of an excellent book. wow. the information is timeless because the way humans think and process information are constant. Kuhn has captured the essence of the (complex) process by which we think, test, and alter what we think we know.

This is one of the more historically important books in philosophy and science. It is too bad the audible version has the reader speak in a way that is quite artificial. This radically reduces the ability to attend to the material in a way that is needed to effectively appreciate Kuhn's work. Let us hope for a new recording where the reader does not rove up and down so drastically with intonation or utilize unnecessary pauses where one could continue the stream of thought. I think this is a fine example of when a classic is lost to the limits of understanding of the folks replicating it. All the same, it is great to have it available at all considering the age of the book. I commend audible for offering it, even in its "hard to listen to" state, and I highly recommend more scientific reads!

Though there are plenty of big words and parts of it are hard to follow, i still got a lot out of it. Its not the kind of book i could listen to while I worked, I needed to give it full attention.

This is an important book. And it is hard to read on paper. It is even harder to absorb in audio. I think all scientists should read this book. But it takes a lot of focused attention no matter how you do it.

This kind of book is why I love audible so much. I never would have read it let alone understand it if it weren't for being on audible. The book is written at such a level that anyone can follow what he's trying to say. I never would have realized that if I were reading the book on my own. (God bless Audible and it's great library of books!).

By listening to the reader (Dennis Holland) it becomes obvious the writer (Kuhn) was writing the essay as to be accessible to all levels of readers (listeners). The reader gave it the simple presentation the author was striving to give.

The two previous books I had been listening to, '13 Things That Don't Make Sense" and "Too Big to Know", both referenced this book extensively so I thought I'd give it a try. Usually, primary sources are hard for me to follow, but this book was not. At its core the book is still a philosophy book and doesn't flow as well as most of the popular science books that I read do.

Probably not. I found the audio jam packed with thought provoking and new ideas. I tend to listen to audios on my way to work and this was definitely something I need to sit down, study and carefully read each paragraph.

They were complicated concepts that require careful consideration.

No. Spaced out between thoughts.

Nowadays we throw around the word

This isn't a book of

Dennis Holland's narration of Kuhn's precise, sometimes technical writing is lively and easily digested. I disagree with other reviews which claim this book is unsuitable for audio. Under a less capable narrator, yes, it could have been a monotonous listen, but Dennis Holland keeps the content moving.

The book is certainly engrossing, and I did find myself wrapped up in Kuhn's prose and arguments. On the other hand, it's a dense, meaty book, and others may want to pause periodically to think about and mentally digest some of the important points.

I'm very grateful this book found its way to Audible. Anyone serious about the study of history, philosophy, the history of science, or indeed almost any other discipline in the humanities owes it to themselves to read this book.

This was an important book in 1963 when it was first published. I thought it sounded interesting. Unfortunately, I found it to be a very scholarly work, which overworked it's thesis again and again in fine detail. The author seems to insert a paranthetical comment or subclause into every sentence. I could have gotten everything I needed to know on this subject in a ten-page article.

I suppose that I should have read reviews beforehand to understand better whether the work would hold my interest.

At least the narrator makes it easy to follow the author's dense terminology and phrasing.