Paradigm

:For alternative meanings see Paradigm (disambiguation).

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Since the late 1800s, the word paradigm (IPA: ) has referred to a thought pattern in any scientific discipline or other epistemological context. Initially the word was specific to grammar: the 1900 Merriam-Webster dictionary defines its technical use only in the context of grammar or, in rhetoric, as a term for an illustrative parable or fable.

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Also, in linguistics, Ferdinand de Saussure used paradigm to refer to a class of elements with similarities.

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Philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn gave this word its contemporary meaning when he adopted it to refer to the set of practices that define a scientific discipline during a particular period of time. Kuhn's meaning was and is widely abused. Kuhn himself came to prefer the terms exemplar and normal science, which have more exact philosophical meaning. However, in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Kuhn defines a scientific paradigm as:

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• what is to be observed and scrutinized,
• the kind of questions that are supposed to be asked and probed for answers in relation to this subject,
• how these questions are to be put,
• how the results of scientific investigations should be interpreted.

The more disparaging term groupthink, and the term mindset, have very similar meanings that apply to smaller and larger scale examples of disciplined thought. Michel Foucault used the terms episteme and discourse, mathesis and taxinomia, for aspects of a "paradigm" in Kuhn's original sense.

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See also: paradigm shift, sociology of knowledge and philosophy of science, where these words are placed in context.

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Paradigm: Examples ►



 

IPA: REDIRECT International Phonetic Alphabet...

Scientific: REDIRECT Science...

Discipline: Discipline is any training intended to produce a specific character or pattern of behaviour, especially training that produces moral or mental development in a particular direction....