Paradigm and Discipline in the Perspectives of Kuhn and Morin

Abstract

This essay compares the concept of paradigm in the perspectives of Thomas Kuhn and Edgar Morin. Despite the international relevance of their works and their contributions to the history of science and the philosophy of science, there is a lack in literature of comparative studies on their main ideas, and this lack has generated confusion and simplifications. The article starts from an extensive research of the works published by the authors at international level. In the first section, there is the perspective of Kuhn on various concepts, such as paradigm, disciplinary matrix, the scientific community and incommensurability. In the second section, the perspective of Morin on the separation-reduction paradigm and on the complexity paradigm is presented. In the third section, their perspectives on scientific progress under the concept of discipline are compared, in order to discriminate convergent and divergent aspects in their works. Finally, the findings are summarized.

Key-words: Paradigm; Discipline, Philosophy of science.