New Paradigms and Open Minds

In this week’s spotlight I would like to discuss the idea of paradigms. The American physicist and philosopher, Thomas Kuhn, proposed the notion of paradigm cycles that can eventually lead to paradigm shifts. A paradigm shift is a construct that describes a fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline. Paradigm Shift Cycle The Kuhn Cycle, as it is known, has pre-science leading to science, followed by a model drift that leads to a model crisis and subsequently a model revolution and consequently a paradigm shift. By way of example, physics is a field that ...