Read the passage and answer the questions: "Normal science, the activity in which most scientists inevitably spend almost all their time, is based on the assumption that the scientific community knows what the world is like. Scientists take great pains to defend that assumption, often restricting their vision to the phenomena that the existing paradigm has defined as relevant. When research proceeds in this fashion, findings tend to be incremental, reinforcing the established framework rather than challenging it. Yet, over time, anomalies—empirical observations that cannot be explained within the current paradigm—accumulate. Initially, these anomalies are dismissed as errors or as problems to be solved within the existing theoretical structure. However, as these anomalies grow in number and significance, they begin to erode confidence in the prevailing paradigm. The resolution of such crises is not a straightforward process of falsification, as Popper might suggest, but rather a transformation in the very way scientists see the world. Scientific revolutions occur when a new paradigm emerges—one that is not merely an extension of the old but a fundamental reconceptualization of reality. This shift is not purely logical or empirical; it involves a radical change in perspective, akin to a gestalt switch. The Copernican Revolution, for example, did not merely adjust astronomical calculations; it redefined the very framework through which celestial motion was understood. Similarly, Einstein's theory of relativity did not just modify Newtonian mechanics but replaced its foundational assumptions about space and time."
What does the word "gestalt switch" imply in this context?
A fundamental change in perception
A fundamental change in perception is correct.
A gestalt switch is the sudden change in how the same figure is seen, as when an ambiguous drawing flips from a duck to a rabbit. Nothing in the picture changes; the way of seeing it does.
The passage uses the phrase to describe a paradigm shift: it "is not purely logical or empirical; it involves a radical change in perspective, akin to a gestalt switch." So the phrase implies a fundamental change in how scientists perceive the world.
A subtle expansion of an existing model contradicts the passage, which says a new paradigm is not merely an extension of the old. A shift from general to specific thinking and a reversal in cause-effect reasoning are not mentioned anywhere in the passage.
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Important Questions from Reading Comprehension
What is the meaning of ‘intrigued’?
What are ice shelves?
What are icebergs?
When the iceberg turns upside down, it appears ________.
The use of science in its simple form has helped man to ____________
