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Paradigm shift
Paradigm shift is the term first used by Thomas Kuhn in his 1962 book
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions to describe a change in basic
assumptions within the ruling theory of science. It is in contrast to
his idea of normal science.
It has since become widely applied to many other realms of human
experience as well even though Kuhn himself restricted the use of the
term to the hard sciences. According to Kuhn, "A paradigm is what
members of a scientific community, and they alone, share.” (The
Essential Tension, 1997). Unlike a normal scientist, Kuhn held, “a
student in the humanities has constantly before him a number of
competing and incommensurable solutions to these problems, solutions
that he must ultimately examine for himself.” (The Structure of
Scientific Revolutions). A scientist, however, once a paradigm shift is
complete, is not allowed the luxury, for example, of positing the
possibility that miasma causes the flu or that ether carries light in
the same way that a critic in the Humanities can choose to adopt a 19th
century theory of poetics, for instance, or select Marxism as an
explanation of economic behaviour. Thus, paradigms, in the sense that
Kuhn used them, do not exist in Humanities or social sciences.
Nonetheless, the term has been adopted since the 1960s and applied in
non-scientific contexts.
Alternative names
The concept is also known as extraordinary science and revolutionary
science.
Kuhnian paradigm shifts
An epistemological paradigm shift was called a scientific revolution by
epistemologist and historian of science Thomas Kuhn in his book The
Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
A scientific revolution occurs, according to Kuhn, when scientists
encounter anomalies which cannot be explained by the universally
accepted paradigm within which scientific progress has thereto been
made. The paradigm, in Kuhn's view, is not simply the current theory,
but the entire worldview in which it exists, and all of the implications
which come with it. There are anomalies for all paradigms, Kuhn
maintained, that are brushed away as acceptable levels of error, or
simply ignored and not dealt with (a principal argument Kuhn uses to
reject Karl Popper's model of falsifiability as the key force involved
in scientific change). Rather, according to Kuhn, anomalies have various
levels of significance to the practitioners of science at the time. To
put it in the context of early 20th century physics, some scientists
found the problems with calculating Mercury's perihelion more troubling
than the Michelson-Morley experiment results, and some the other way
around. Kuhn's model of scientific change differs here, and in many
places, from that of the logical positivists in that it puts an enhanced
emphasis on the individual humans involved as scientists, rather than
abstracting science into a purely logical or philosophical venture.
When enough significant anomalies have accrued against a current
paradigm, the scientific discipline is thrown into a state of crisis,
according to Kuhn. During this crisis, new ideas, perhaps ones
previously discarded, are tried. Eventually a new paradigm is formed,
which gains its own new followers, and an intellectual "battle" takes
place between the followers of the new paradigm and the hold-outs of the
old paradigm. Again, for early 20th century physics, the transition
between the Maxwellian electromagnetic worldview and the Einsteinian
Relativistic worldview was not instantaneous nor calm, and instead
involved a protracted set of "attacks," both with empirical data as well
as rhetorical or philosophical arguments, by both sides, with the
Einsteinian theory winning out in the long-run. Again, the weighing of
evidence and importance of new data was fit through the human sieve:
some scientists found the simplicity of Einstein's equations to be most
compelling, while some found them more complicated than the notion of
Maxwell's aether which they banished. Some found Eddington's photographs
of light bending around the sun to be compelling, some questioned their
accuracy and meaning. Sometimes the convincing force is just time itself
and the human toll it takes, Kuhn said, using a quote from Max Planck:
"a new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and
making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually
die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."
After a given discipline has changed from one paradigm to another, this
is called, in Kuhn's terminology, a scientific revolution or a paradigm
shift. It is often this final conclusion, the result of the long
process, that is meant when the term paradigm shift is used
colloquially: simply the (often radical) change of worldview, without
reference to the specificities of Kuhn's historical argument.
Science and paradigm shift
A common misinterpretation of paradigms is the belief that the discovery
of paradigm shifts and the dynamic nature of science (with its many
opportunities for subjective judgments by scientists) is a case for
relativism: the view that all kinds of belief systems are equal, such
that magic, religious concepts or pseudoscience would be of equal
working value to true science. Kuhn vehemently denies this
interpretation and states that when a scientific paradigm is replaced by
a new one, albeit through a complex social process, the new one is
always better, not just different.
These claims of relativism are, however, tied to another claim that Kuhn
does at least somewhat endorse: that the language and theories of
different paradigms cannot be translated into one another or rationally
evaluated against one another — that they are incommensurable. This gave
rise to much talk of different peoples and cultures having radically
different worldviews or conceptual schemes — so different that whether
or not one was better, they could not be understood by one another.
However, the philosopher Donald Davidson published a highly-regarded
essay in 1974, "On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme," arguing that
the notion that any languages or theories could be incommensurable with
one another was itself incoherent. If this is correct, Kuhn's claims
must be taken in a weaker sense than they often are. Furthermore, the
hold of the Kuhnian analysis on social science has long been tenuous
with the wide application of multi-paradigmatic approaches in order to
understand complex human behaviour (see for example John Hassard,
Sociology and Organisation Theory. Positivism, Paradigm and
Postmodernity. Cambridge University Press. 1993.)
Paradigm shifts tend to be most dramatic in sciences that appear to be
stable and mature, as in physics at the end of the 19th century. At that
time, physics seemed to be a discipline filling in the last few details
of a largely worked-out system. In 1900, Lord Kelvin famously stated,
"There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains
is more and more precise measurement." Five years later, Albert Einstein
published his paper on special relativity, which challenged the very
simple set of rules laid down by Newtonian mechanics, which had been
used to describe force and motion for over three hundred years. In this
case, the new paradigm reduces the old to a special case (Newtonian
mechanics is an excellent approximation for speeds that are slow
compared to the speed of light).
In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn wrote that "Successive
transition from one paradigm to another via revolution is the usual
developmental pattern of mature science." (p.12) Kuhn's idea was itself
revolutionary in its time, as it caused a major change in the way that
academics talk about science. Thus, it caused or was itself part of a
"paradigm shift" in the history and sociology of science.
Philosophers and historians of science, including Kuhn himself,
ultimately accepted a modified version of Kuhn's model, which
synthesizes his original view with the gradualist model that preceded
it. Kuhn's original model is now generally seen as too limited.
Examples of paradigm shifts in science
There are a number of "classical cases" given for examples of Kuhnian
paradigm shifts in science a few of them including:
* The transition between the Maxwellian Electromagnetic worldview and
the Einsteinian Relativistic worldview.
* The transition between the worldview of Newtonian physics and the
Einsteinian Relativistic worldview.
* The acceptance of Plate tectonics as the explanation for large-scale
geologic changes.
Examples of paradigm shifts in complex systems and organizations
* The English monarchy with the signing of Magna Carta.
* The "explosion of life" marking the end of the Pre-Cambrian Era.
* Society with the invention of any of several innovations (fire, the
wheel, gunpowder, the microchip, etc.).
* Warfare and corporate structure with the development of the Prussian
Military Model.
Other uses
The term "paradigm shift" has found uses in other contexts, representing
the notion of a major change in a certain thought-pattern — a radical
change in personal beliefs, complex systems or organizations, replacing
the former way of thinking or organizing with a radically different way
of thinking or organizing:
* Handa, M. L., a professor of sociology in education at O.S.E.
University of Toronto, Canada, developed the concept of a paradigm
within the context of social sciences. He defines what he means by
"paradigm" and introduces the idea of a "social paradigm". In addition,
he identifies the basic component of any social paradigm. Like Kuhn, he
addresses the issue of changing paradigms, the process popularly known
as "paradigm shift." In this respect, he focuses on the social
circumstances which precipitate such a shift. Relatedly, he addresses
how that shift affects social institutions, including the institution of
education.
* The concept has been developed in economics (Giovanni Dosi) in the
identification of new techno-economic paradigms as changes in
technological systems that have a major influence on the behaviour of
the entire economy. This concept is linked to Schumpeter's idea of
"creative gales of destruction". Example include move to mass
production, or the introduction of the microelectronics.
* Margaret Mead, noted anthropologist, shows a flashlight to the
indigenous New Guinea people.
* Development of new techniques in genetics impact long-standing
assumptions in anthropology.
The phrase has been abused in "marketing speak", and is often considered
a meaningless buzzword in this context. This is now so widespread that
Larry Trask lists it in his book Mind The Gaffe as a phrase never to
use, and he advises caution when reading anything that contains this
phrase.
Use in popular culture
* Paradigm Shift is a song title by the experimental progressive metal
group Liquid Tension Experiment.
* Paradigm Shift is also the title of a manga-based webcomic by Dirk
Tiede.
* Paradigm Shift is the name of a professional gaming clan founded in
1999.
* Paradigm Shift is mentioned in the book "Jurassic Park" on page 383
and 384.
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