On The Reasonability Of Kuhn's Paradigm Theory Applied To Social Science

"Paradigm" is the core category of Kuhn's philosophical thought and the "Paradigm Theory" is a milestone in philosophy of science. Although there were broad discussion and controversy due to the "Paradigm Theory" in philosophy of science and natural science, it was accepted and applied widely by social scientists. This paper has explored renewedly Kuhn's "Paradigm Theory", discerned his intention to introduce the concept paradigm into his theory, analyzed the core meanings of paradigm, described the patterns of applying the "Paradigm Theory" to social science, and then reflected the reasonability of the "Paradigm Theory" applied to social science.According to Kuhn' descriptions and my analyses, Kuhn's intention to introduce paradigm was to seek the rational authority of science. His answer was the scientific community's consensus that emerges from successful exemplars. Therefore, community and exemplars are the core meanings of paradigm. The main pattern of social scientists' applying the "Paradigm Theory" was using paradigm to exhibit the scientific status of the social sciences or to put them on the sure path of a science. However, Kuhn not only had denied the scientific status of social science, but also had refused to bring social science into his science development model. Social science is short of main factors to achieve their consensus. Above all, Kuhn had considered that the social science couldn't establish its paradigms by some artificial ways to turn into normal science. Therefore, there is little reasonability of Kuhn's "Paradigm Theory" applied to social science.In conclusion, reflecting the reasonability of Kuhn's "Paradigm Theory" applied to social science, is not only an effort to review Kuhn's philosophical thought, but also a fresh angle to research the relationship between natural science and social science. As multum in parvo, we could get a general idea about the foreground of their relationship.