The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Wittgenstein, however, concluded that, given the way we use language and the sort of world to which we apply it, there need be no such set of characteristics.

Anyone who has attempted to describe or analyze the evolution of a particular scientific tradition will necessarily have sought accepted principles and rules of this sort. Almost certainly, as the preceding section indicates, he will have met with at least partial success. But, if

if his experience has been at all like my own, he will have found the search for rules both more difficult and less satisfying than the search for paradigms.