Science Forums 2

[coberst]

Does Wikipedia provide false authority to our sound-bite society?

The following is a paragraph from a Wikipedia entry for Thomas Kuhn’s book titled “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”.

Quote:
“The changes that occur in politics, society and business are often expressed in Kuhnian terms, however poor their parallel with the practice of science may seem to scientists and historians of science. The terms "paradigm" and "paradigm shift" have become such notorious clichés and buzzwords that they are viewed in many circles as being effectively devoid of content and their use in these contexts rarely has any firm foundation in Kuhn's original definitions.”

This paragraph gives us some insight into the dangers inherent in our sound-bite, bumper-sticker society, in which many people gain a small fragment of knowledge and from this fragment are deluded into thinking that they comprehend very complex ideas.

I am not much of a user of Wikipedia and thus have little knowledge upon which I can answer my own question.