Study Guide: Concept 3 — The Research Programme

Core Concept

The unit of appraisal: a theory-sequence with hard core (unrevisable by decision), protective belt (adjustable), negative heuristic (protect the core), positive heuristic (the development plan). Kuhn's sociology rebuilt as logic and strategy.

Key Terms

Research programme · hard core · protective belt · negative/positive heuristic

Case Summary

Newtonian programme: laws + gravitation as core; optics, perturbations, shapes as belt; the planned march from point-planets to wobbling spheroids as heuristic.

Application Checklist

• [ ] Write your project's core in one sentence; verify team convergence
• [ ] Sort last quarter's changes: belt adjustments vs core changes
• [ ] Check your roadmap for an actual heuristic (planned idealization-lifting)

Self-Test

1. The four components of a programme?
2. How does this reconstruct Kuhn's "dogmatism" rationally?
3. Belt pivot vs core pivot — why does the difference matter?