Thomas Kuhn Definition of Normal Scientific Growth

According to Thomas Kuhn, normal science progresses steadily in the scope of scientific knowledge. It piles on a defined enterprise and does not aim at novelties of fact or theory and when successful, finds none.

The legislative system in the United States for example, follows the normal science pattern. The congress may agree and vote on a new amendment to the US constitution and therefore cumulate to the nation’s legal enterprise. The legislators in this example tend to add or remove ornaments to/from the constitutional tree rather than planting a new seed. 

For hundreds of years people of Europe believed in the Biblical view of genesis. It wasn’t until mid-eighteenth century when a new paradigm of evolution was introduced by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. Their theories and studies opened a new chapter in the book of science and pioneered many later findings. This is one example that shows a challenge to an existing paradigm versus filling up its blanks.  

As we can see, science can extend either in a normal or novel way. Normal science is the kind that grows steadily within the accepted paradigm like the constitutional example, and novel science is the kind that opens a new paradigm which can lead to prospective normal science like the Darwin example. According to Thomas Kuhn science normally progresses steadily within the paradigm of scientific knowledge and is a highly cumulative enterprise.  

Resource:

Spodek Howard; The World’s History, Volume One: Prehistory to 1500.Prentice Hall .4^th Edition.