Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Micronaut_Nematode t1_j7lrnu9 wrote

Reply to comment by swingsetclouds in The often misused buzzword Paradigm originated in extremely popular and controversial philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn's work; he defined the term in two core ways: firstly as a disciplinary matrix (similar to the concept of a worldview) and secondly as an exemplar by thelivingphilosophy

Paradigm means: pattern, system or model. You could say that worldviews are a type of paradigm, when that worldview is a shared belief system, a pattern or model shared by many. However, it is also possible to have a worldview that is not a paradigm at all (if it is unique, original and not well defined) So yes, I think you are misusing the word.

This article is very ironic btw, the idea that Thomas Kuhn invented this word is hilarious. He is just another guy hijacking the word for his own purposes. This word was used for centuries before Kuhn came around.

I am beginning to think that philosophers are unaware and unable to read non-philosophy books, it's brutal how narrow-minded these essays constantly are. Talk about cloistered scholars.

3

iambingalls t1_j7lt6na wrote

Nowhere does it say that he invented the word. In order to talk about an idea, philosophers will often use an appropriate word and define it in the context of their framework of thinking. Kuhn thought that the term paradigm captured what he meant better than any other word and then gave context to what he meant within his own framework. You can see this with many philosophers, who often choose specific words for complex reasons after years of study, see: Deleuze and the word Rhizome, or Nietzsche and Ubermensch, for instance.

Notice: >To summarise then, a paradigm for Kuhn has two core meanings.

A book of philosophy says "Here is what I'm thinking, here are the terms I'm using, and here's what I'm using them to mean in this context so that we can talk about these ideas."

23

Micronaut_Nematode t1_j7lv1bs wrote

You are right, actually, and thanks for correcting me. It was OP who framed it this way with the title.

12

CharlemagneAdelaar t1_j7lv17w wrote

I use paradigm all the time as an engineer -- it is really useful when comparing different models,

For example it would be useful to distinguish the "ideal" and "real" paradigms of a topic -- similar words to describe these are "regimes", or "cases".

On some level, it often feels like the word that fits best in an academic paper. It is the only word out of these examples that ONLY means "category of thought" - this is free from any possible ambiguity.

2