Law Commons^™

Interdisciplinary Legal Scholarship In Search Of A Paradigm, Charles W. Collier

UF Law Faculty Publications

A “mature” science, according to Thomas Kuhn, can afford to be uncritical. It has finally answered to its practitioners' satisfaction the fundamental, foundational questions of their field. It finally rests (“for a time,” at least) on an established scientific achievement that epitomizes the accomplished, collective wisdom of an age and defines the terms, conditions, directions, and limits of further refining research. With this “paradigm” in place, researchers are spared the incessant and distracting reexamination of first principles, the extravagant costs of intellectual retooling; they can proceed with confidence, effectiveness, and efficiency to do what they do best: articulating and specifying …