In identifying that the 'essential tension' is the balance between conservative and innovative approaches in the development of knowledge - tried-and tested or new directions - Kuhn pointed out that these two attitudes are both appropriate. This study adds to this picture the social and psychological dynamics that underpin any such balancing.

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FRED D'AGOSTINO is Professor of Humanities at The University of Queensland, Australia. He co-edits Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) and previously co-edited the Australasian Journal of Philosophy. His most recent books are Free Public Reason (1996) and Incommensurability and Commensuration (2003). He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and holds Australian Research Council and Australian Learning and Teaching Council grants for work, respectively, in social epistemology and tertiary curriculum development.