Use to read a company or movement in trouble: if everyone is suddenly debating first principles, proposing contradictory 'fixes,' and openly complaining, you are in crisis — the old way has lost its grip. Use to distinguish 'in crisis' from 'hard times': crisis means the shared framework itself is being questioned, not just the results.

Kuhn lists the symptoms of the transition from normal to extraordinary research: 'the proliferation of competing articulations, the willingness to try anything, the expression of explicit discontent, the recourse to philosophy and to debate over fundamentals.' And separately: 'proliferation of versions of a theory is a very usual symptom of crisis.' The framework in crisis loses its grip on what counts as a valid move, so everything becomes a candidate move.