Paradigm and Paradigm Shift

Thomas Kuhn coined the term paradigm. He outlined it in terms of the scientific process. A paradigm is the consensus of the scientific community; "concrete problem solutions that the profession has come to accept."(Hoyningen-Huene, p. 134)

Kuhn felt that, "one sense of paradigm’ is global, embracing all the shared commitments of a scientific group; the other isolates a particularly important sort of commitment and is thus a subset of the first." (Hoyningen-Huene, p. 134) The concept of paradigm has two general levels. The first is the encompassing whole; the summation of the parts. It consists of the theories, laws, rules, models, concepts, and definitions that go into a generally accepted fundamental theory of science. Such a paradigm is "global" in character. The other level of paradigm is that it can also be just one of these laws, theories, models, etc. that combine to formulate a "global" paradigm. These have the property of being "local". For instance, Galileo’s theory that the earth rotated around the sun became a paradigm in itself, namely a generally accepted law in astronomy. Yet on the other hand, his theory combined with other "local" paradigms in areas such as religion and politics to transform culture.

Kuhn himself had difficulty distinguishing the two levels of paradigm and he eventually contrived a new concept, the disciplinary matrix, that replaced the "global" paradigm and was composed of four major components including the "local" paradigm. That’s beyond the scope of this assignment so I’ll stop there but it does make me wonder why the somewhat ambiguous term paradigm is used and not disciplinary matrix. Too long I guess.

A political paradigm has been defined as the ensemble of institutions, practices, and beliefs by which a society governs itself.(Ophuls, p.4) Political systems parallel scientific systems and therefore political change behaves similarly to scientific change and therefore the paradigm concepts of Kuhn. Once a problem can no longer be solved in the existing paradigm, new laws and theories emerge and form a new paradigm, overthrowing the old if it is accepted. This changing of the paradigm is termed, paradigm shift. These shifts are the "occasional, discontinuous, revolutionary changes in tacitly shared points of view and preconceptions."(Daly p.1) To abandon on paradigm for another is to alter the entire intellectual basis of a community whether it be scientific, political or otherwise. They represent " a profound change in the thoughts, perceptions, and values that form a particular vision of reality." (Capra, p. 30) Capra also adds that paradigm shifts are usually brought about by people who are young or new to a particular discipline since they are relatively free of established preconceptions.

On the environmental front, the cry for paradigm shift, or revolution, is wide spread. The shift found necessary by many is to convert from the reductionistic view of the earth and human relationship with it, to a holistic viewpoint where humans are part of the earth. Holism is the foundation for a new "systems paradigm"(Ophuls, p. 231) Some call it the new ecology; a paradigm removed from the current paradigm of anthropocentrism.(Scherer p. 12)

Model

A model is, "a simplified representation of a system (or process or theory) intended to enhance out ability to understand, predict, and possible control the behavior of the system."(Neelamkavil p. 30) A model is only a representation of a system and not the real system. It cannot possess all of the attributes of the real system otherwise it would be the real system and no longer a representation. The process of constructing a model consists of "establishing interrelationships between important entities of a system." (Neelamkavil p. 30) Global environmental models represent assumptions about the interrelationship among global concerns.(Meadows p.55) Models are expressed in terms of goals, performance criteria, and constraints.

Model refers to a specific use of metaphor in a carefully delineated and circumscribed way.(Olds p.25) It can be understood as a blueprint, a paradigm, a representation, a standard, or an ideal.

A model is a tool that simplifies reality so that the user of the model can gain better in-depth knowledge of the system he/she is studying.

Metaphor

Encyclopedia Britannia defines it as implying, "comparison between two unlike entities." Websters Third Edition defines it as suggesting an analogy between two things.

Metaphors carry meaning across["phor" form pherin] and beyond ["meta"], from one discipline to another.(Olds p.24) They extend the understanding though the use of comparison.

Metaphor involves the use of images of concepts from one area of study to experience another area.

Metaphors consist of two parts.(Way p. 28) The first is the old concept or discipline and the other is the new concept that has been connected or compared to the old one. Metaphors create new knowledge by materializing new connections among old knowledge. They provide a means of moving from known ideas and familiar concepts to new and unknown ones.

Analogy

An analogy show the similarity between two entities.

Analogy is a kind of mapping between the entities and relationships of two systems.(Way p.9) It exists between two objects by virtue of their common properties.(Way p.158)

Definition six in Websters Third Edition states analogy as the, "correspondance in function between organs or parts of different structure and origin."

An analogy distills the essence of one situation and adapts it to fit another situation.(Mitchell p.16)

Analogy is similar to metaphor in the both compare using "old" concepts to create new knowledge but an analogy is explicit in its comparison and always points out the similarities in the comparison.

References

Daly, Herman E. Economics, "Introduction to the Steady-State Economy" in Ecology, Ethics: Essays Toward A Steady State Economy, W.H. Freeman & Company, 1980

Capra, Fritjof, The Turning Point: Science, society and the Rising Culture.

Hloyningen-Huene, Paul, Reconstructing Scientific Revolutions, The University of Chicago Press, 1993.

Meadows, Donella H., "Charting the Way the World Works", Technology Review , MIT Press, Cambridge, MA February/March 1985.

Mitchell, Melanie, Analogy-Making as Perception: A Computer Model, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1993.

Neelamkavil, Francis, Computer Simulation and Modeling, John Wiley & Sons, New York 1987.

Olds, Linda E., Metaphors of Interrelatedness, State University of New York Press, Albany 1992.

Ophuls, William, Ecology and the Polics of Scarcity, 1977.

Scherer, Donald and Attig, Thomas, Ethics and the Environment, Prentice-Hall, 1983.

Way, Eileen Cornell, Knowledge Representation and Metaphor, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston 1991.