User Contributed Dictionary
Noun
exemplars- Plural of exemplar
Extensive Definition
- "Exemplars" directs here. For the superpowered comic book team, see Exemplars (comics).
According to Kuhn, scientific practice alternates
between periods of normal
science and extraordinary/revolutionary science. During periods
of normalcy, scientists tend to subscribe to a large body of
interconnecting knowledge, methods, and assumptions which make up
the reigning paradigm
(see paradigm
shift for more information on Kuhn's model). Normal science
presents a series of "puzzles" that are solved as scientists
explore their field. The solution to some of these puzzles become
well known and are the exemplars of the field.
Kuhn introduced the concept of exemplar in a
postscript to the second edition of
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1970). He noted that
- [b]ecause the term [paradigm] has assumed a life of its own ... I shall here substitute ‘exemplars.’ By it I mean, initially, the concrete problem-solutions that students encounter from the start of their scientific education, whether in laboratories, on examinations, or at the ends of chapters in science texts. ... All physicists, for example, begin by learning the same exemplars: problems such as the inclined plane, the conical pendulum, and Keplerian orbits; instruments such as the vernier, the calorimeter, and the Wheatstone bridge.
Those who study a scientific discipline are
expected to know its exemplars. There is no fixed set of exemplars,
but for a physicist today it would certainly include such things as
the harmonic
oscillator from mechanics and the hydrogen
atom from quantum
mechanics. For a biologist today the set includes the
population variations of the European
peppered moth (Biston betularia) and the convergent
evolution of wings. They should also be familiar with ideas
which have been discredited or otherwise proven false.
See also
References
- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
exemplars in French: Exemplars
exemplars in Lithuanian:
Egzempliorius