Abstract
Philosophers have long tried to understand scientific change in terms of a dynamics of revision
within ‘theoretical frameworks,’ ‘disciplinary matrices,’ ‘scientific paradigms’ or ‘conceptual
schemes.’ No-one, however, has made clear precisely how one might model such a conceptual
scheme, nor what form change dynamics within such a structure could be expected to take. In
this paper we take some first steps in applying network theory to the issue, modeling conceptual
schemes as simple networks and the dynamics of change as cascades on those networks. The
results allow a new understanding of two traditional approaches—Popper and Kuhn—as well as
introducing the intriguing prospect of viewing scientific change using the metaphor of selforganizing criticality.