Changes

|Description=In principle, the process of scientific change can concern many different types of epistemic elements. One important question is to establish the most fundamental units that undergo scientific change. Over the years, it has been argued that the fundamental units of scientific change include theories ([[Karl Popper|Popper]]), paradigms ([[Thomas Kuhn|Kuhn]]), research programmes ([[Imre Lakatos|Lakatos]]), research traditions (early [[Larry Laudan|Laudan]]), methods ([[Thomas Kuhn|Kuhn]], [[Dudley Shapere|Shapere]], later [[Larry Laudan|Laudan]]), and values ([[Thomas Kuhn|Kuhn]], later [[Larry Laudan|Laudan]]). This is not surprising, as any theory of scientific change needs to establish a basic ''ontology'' of epistemic elements that are part of the process of scientific change.

|Prehistory=[[Karl Popper]]’s theory of scientific change took theories to be the basic units of scientific change. According to Popper, as well as many other philosophers of science of the pre-Kuhnian era, it is theories that become accepted and rejected during the process of scientific change. [[CiteRef::Popper (1959)]]

[[Thomas Kuhn]]'s theory of scientific change identified the ontological units of scientific change as frameworks which he referred to as ''paradigms'', which can be defined as a characteristic set of beliefs and preconceptions held by a scientific community including instrumental, theoretical, and metaphysical commitments all together.[[CiteRef::Kuhn (1962a)]][[CiteRef::Kuhn (1977a)|pp. 293-319]] Kuhn himself confessed that he had confusingly used the term in several different senses.[[CiteRef::Kuhn (1977a)|pp. 293-294]] In an attempt to clarify matters he sought to replace his broadest definition of the paradigm, given above, with the concept of ''disciplinary matrices'', defined as those shared elements that account for the relatively unproblematic professional communication and relative unanimity of professional judgment within a scientific community.[[CiteRef::Kuhn (1977a)|p. 297]] For Kuhn, then, a theory of scientific change ought to deal with disciplinary matrices and their changes over time.