More Heraclitus Than Kuhn

The prompt for this symposium was inspired by Thomas Kuhn's groundbreaking 1962 work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, in which he explored the concept of "paradigm shifts." As scientist and historian, he sought out the root causes of the kinds of major advances in scientific knowledge associated with the likes of Copernicus, Newton, Lavoisier, and Einstein. We've been asked to consider whether antitrust is at such a juncture. Are we witnessing or participating in a genuine "paradigm shift"?

Unlike the scientific paradigms that interested Kuhn, if there is an antitrust paradigm, its most fundamental characteristic is the absence of immutable content. It has been and remains – by design – adaptable. This is not to suggest that it is entirely fluid. Antitrust is rooted in core principles and concerns about competition. But those principles and concerns can be deployed differently under the influence of more or less interventionist political and economic