Editing Paradigm shift (section)

== Criticism ==
In a 2015 retrospective on Kuhn,<ref>Cohen, Martin (2015). ''Paradigm Shift: How Expert Opinions Keep Changing on Life, the Universe and Everything''. Imprint Academic. p. 181.</ref> the philosopher [[Martin Cohen (philosopher)|Martin Cohen]] describes the notion of the paradigm shift as a kind of intellectual virus – spreading from hard science to [[social science]] and on to the arts and even everyday [[political rhetoric]] today. Cohen claims that Kuhn had only a very hazy idea of what it might mean and, in line with the Austrian philosopher of science [[Paul Feyerabend]], accuses Kuhn of retreating from the more radical implications of his theory, which are that [[scientific fact]]s are never really more than opinions whose popularity is transitory and far from conclusive. Cohen says scientific [[knowledge]] is less certain than it is usually portrayed, and that science and knowledge generally is not the 'very sensible and reassuringly solid sort of affair' that Kuhn describes, in which progress involves periodic paradigm shifts in which much of the old certainties are abandoned in order to open up new approaches to understanding that scientists would never have considered valid before. He argues that information cascades can distort rational, scientific debate. He has focused on health issues, including the example of highly mediatised '[[pandemic]]' [[alarmism|alarms]], and why they have turned out eventually to be little more than scares.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://theconversation.com/profiles/martin-cohen-406203 |title = Martin Cohen| date=6 September 2017 }}</ref>