Talk:Post-normal science

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Criticism of the idea http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/2007/03/what-is-post-normal-science.html Twfowler 16:49, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

there is a fatal flaw in your reformulation of kuhn's ideas - the paradigm shift DOES NOT concern "science itself" - by that i mean the currently used scientific method. that could only be done using some form of meta-paradigm - which is less confusing as it sounds, because that is known as "philosophy of science"... kuhn doesnt adress methods itself, but the shifting in the view of scientists about some field of science - that COULD mean shifting it from science to pseudoscience or the other way around. the shift between einstein's determinism and schrödingers quantum-induced indeterminism is an often quotet example for a paradigm-shift. all other changes or diversifications of the currently used scientific method should be adressed as changes in the underlying philosophy (of science)! g'night... --84.129.254.38 (talk) 19:54, 13 December 2007 (UTC) (get me as user:fluffythekitten in the german wikipedia ;-)

The article still needs a bit of work. Just divided in sections and did some restructuring. Deleted the "original research" tag (most concepts are published, see bibliography and external links). Deleted wikify tag after wikifing some terms. There are still some arguments and counter-arguments on "criticism" to be properly cited.- Mario J Alves (talk) 17:18, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

"Few mainstream scientists advocate the approaches taken by post-normal science" - this seems like a truism to me. For the concept, judging from the present state of the article alone, does not refer to doing scientific research but about implementing scientific discoveries. The last few lines, if I am not mistaken, seem to have the really salient point: "that under certain conditions, where decision stakes and/or scientific uncertainty are sufficiently high, the activity that Thomas Kuhn (see above) called normal 'puzzle solving' science is simply not possible."

To a scientist, this creates nothing but opportunities. To a politician, executive, etc, this creates nothing but problems.

The article reads as if the original proposal is concerned with how scientific research is conducted (at least not in the "hard" sciences). But it seems that the concept actually deals with science-based decisionmaking.

Global warming is just one example. Consider another, which is perhaps more clear: if a company is conducting research into novel technology, and a competitor does the same - when initial results are encouraging but not rock-solid, should the execs give the go-ahead for e.g. technology trials in the hope that they might beat the competitor to the stakes, or should they wait until it is proven that an attempt to implement the new discoveries would not be a waste of money? This, it seems, is the real salient point here. Having read only the article (the concept is entirely new to me) it looks like the only "science" (in the meaning of "scientific research") involved in post-normal science is the science of decision-making based on imperfect knowledge. Dysmorodrepanis (talk) 16:20, 27 March 2008 (UTC)