After taking on violence and vaccination, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is hoping to persuade his friends to tackle the foundations of science, after choosing Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions as the latest title for his online book club.

Kuhn’s 1962 classic argues that science proceeds in fits and starts, the new concepts adopted by revolutionary scientists making it impossible for them to find a common language with colleagues still using old ways of thinking. One of the most cited academic books of all time, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is the sixth A Year of Books title, following Ed Catmull’s Creativity, Inc.

The first selection, Moises Naim’s The End of Power, saw a “seismic” effect on demand after Zuckerberg’s book club announcement. But although the club’s Facebook page now has over 350,000 likes, discussions about individual titles have not run to more than 200 comments, even in Q&A sessions with the authors.

Zuckerberg described Kuhn’s title as “a history of science book that explores the question of whether science and technology make consistent forward progress or whether progress comes in bursts related to other social forces”.

“I tend to think that science is a consistent force for good in the world,” he continued. “I think we’d all be better off if we invested more in science and acted on the results of research. I’m excited to explore this theme further.”

According to the philosopher Julian Baggini, Kuhn’s title is “incredibly popular”.

“I don’t think you’ll find many historians or philosophers of science who actually agree with the central argument,” Baggini said. “But I think the book is nonetheless valuable because it sets out, in perhaps exaggerated terms, something very true and important: that any discipline or way of thinking tends to get stuck in a set of assumptions which need shaking up every now and again.”

“This may not be a wholesale Kuhnian revolution but it can nonetheless be very important. The epigenetics revolution, for example, doesn’t actually overturn the essence of how we thought about genes. But before it, there was an assumption that nothing that happened over a lifetime could affect genes at all and this was wrong.”

David Papineau, professor of philosophy at King’s College London, called Kuhn’s work a “terrific book”, which changed our view of science.

“Before Kuhn, the normal view was that science simply needed men of genius (they were always men) to clear away the clouds of superstition, and the truth of nature would be revealed,” he said. “Kuhn showed it is much more interesting than that. Scientific research requires a rich network of prior assumptions (Kuhn reshaped the term ‘paradigm’ to stand for these), and changing such assumptions can be traumatic, and is always resisted by established interests (thus the need for scientific ‘revolutions’).”

Kuhn showed, said Papineau, that “scientists are normal humans, with prejudices and personal agendas in their research, and that the path to scientific advances runs through a complex social terrain”.

“We look at science quite differently post-Kuhn,” he added.

Zuckerberg founded his bi-weekly book club in January, and has featured titles encompassing economics, society and reportage.

Last month, the Facebook founder urged his followers to make time for books, arguing that reading can “enhance your vocabulary very easily”.

“Books also help you develop your knowledge,” he continued, “but vocabulary is the basic thing that we can improve if you want to not only make a good impression under any circumstances but also to express yourselves even better, make yourself understood so that you can always make it simple and clean to those around you.

“No matter what kind of books you prefer, reading can increase your efficiency in many ways! It could be science-fiction, adventure, classics, mystery, romance or even biography, it is extremely easy to get lost in a good book.”

Embattled booksellers will hope Zuckerberg can inspire some of his 31m friends to join him in his new-found enthusiasm for the written word.