Glossary |
Paradigm: The word "paradigm" was originally one of those obscure
academic terms that has undergone many changes of meaning over the centuries. The
classical Greeks used it to refer to an original archetype or ideal. Later it came to
refer to a grammatical term. In the early 1960s Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996) wrote a ground
breaking book, The Structure of
Scientific Revolutions, in which he showed that science does not progress in an
orderly fashion from lesser to greater truth, but rather remains fixated on a particular
dogma or explanation - a paradigm - which is only overthrown with great difficulty and a
new paradigm established. Thus the Copernican system (the sun at the centre of the
universe) overthrew the Ptolemaic (the earth at the centre) one, and Newtonian physics was
replaced by Relativity and Quantum Physics. Science thus consists of periods of
conservativism ("Normal" Science) punctuated by periods of
"Revolutionary" Science. Paradigm Shift : When anomalies or inconsistencies arise within a given paradigm and present problems that we are unable to solve within a given paradigm, our view of reality must change, as must the way we perceive, think, and value the world. We must take on new assumptions and expectations that will transform our theories, traditions, rules, and standards of practice. We must create a new paradigm in which we are able to solve the unsolvable problems of the old paradigm. Paradigm Addiction: What occurs when a paradigm and its most ardent supporters are addicted to the paradigm to the point where they loose the realization that they are even in a paradigm at all. Ardent paradigm supporters have equated paradigm survival with their own personal survival, and will manipulate and control a society in order to prevent any social or cultural advancement out of the existing paradigm, ignoring or suppressing public knowledge of anomalies, equating perception of anomalies to "personal abnormality" in order to intimidate populations to remain within the status quo control paradigm.
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