Scientific Paradigm Shifts Have Redefined How We Understand the World
- Sometimes science goes through revolutions that replace entire frameworks of understanding.
- Philosopher Thomas Kuhn called these moments paradigm shifts.
- They aren't small updates but wholesale changes in the assumptions that guide science.
- This directly challenges the idea that science provides steady, linear progress toward truth, suggesting instead that knowledge can flip dramatically, forcing us to rethink what counts as reliable evidence, what certainty means, and what “progress” really looks like.
What Are Paradigm Shifts?
Definition
Paradigm shift
A fundamental change in the underlying framework of a discipline, where old assumptions are replaced by new ones.
- Paradigm shifts happen when the assumptions of a field no longer explain the evidence.
- Scientists work within a framework: what questions are worth asking, what counts as good methods, and what theories are “normal.”
- Over time, anomalies build up and eventually, a new framework emerges that explains the anomalies better.
- The old paradigm collapses, and a new one takes its place.
- This links directly to the core concept of perspective.
- Paradigms are shared perspectives.
- A shift isn't just a new theory but a new way of seeing reality.
