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(iv) In conclusion, there are certain assumptions that the scientist makes as ascientist. Finally, at a still higher level, there is another set ofcommitments without which no man is a scientist. The scientist must, forexample, be concerned to understand the world and to extend theprecision and scope with which it has been ordered. That commitmentmust, in turn, lead him to scrutinize ... some aspect of nature in greatempirical detail (1970: 41).Kuhn talks about the network of commitments of each researcher, and callsthem conceptual, theoretical, instrumental and methodological commitments.In summary, it would be possible to classify them into three major categories:• a theoretical-conceptual commitments: commitments to the accuracy ortruth of the theories and laws of the particular paradigm;• methodological-technical commitments: commitments to the criteriaregarded as scientific and of the methods and instrumentation by means ofwhich a given view of what is scientifically valid may be realised;• ontological commitments: assumptions concerning the nature of theresearch object.Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.zaFUNCTIONS OF PARADIGMSIn this section we pay attention to the dynamics of normal science or, stateddifferently, to the manner in which the acceptance of a paradigm enables theresearch community to conduct normal research.A group of scientists commit themselves to a particular paradigm, because theyregard that paradigm, in comparison with other competing paradigms, as themost promising. According to Kuhn, it is for this reason that normal sciencehas to be regarded as an actualization of that promise — an actualizationachieved by extending the knowledge of those facts that the paradigm displaysas particularly revealing, by increasing the extent of the match between thosefacts and the paradigm’s predictions, and by further articulation of theparadigm itself (1970: 24). In an important sense, normal science may beviewed as a mopping-up operation. This mopping-up operation consistsprimarily of three functions, and all these functions may be defined in terms ofa major problem-solving task:(1) Establishing appropriate facts;(2) Matching facts and theory;(3) Articulation of the theory.As far as (1) is concerned, it should be noted that a fruitful paradigm providesclues concerning which empirical and theoretical problems are appropriate andrelevant for further problem-solving activities. The paradigm, therefore, servesa selection function because it is used to identify relevant problems. As far as(2) is concerned, during normal science, researchers tend to conduct147