What Is A Paradigm?

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”The Eye Is Blind To What The Mind Does Not See.•

(Arab proverb)

Consider the following:

  • The church opposed the Copernican model of the solar system for 310 years despite strong supporting evidence. Galileo, who defended the Copernican model, was forced to recant his views and in 1660 Bruno was burnt at the stake for insisting the Earth was not the centre of the Solar System.

  • In 1790 French scientists concluded that meteorites were actually atmospheric lightning. They arrived at this erroneous conclusion because they assumed the universe was stable and the idea of rocks falling from the sky violated this assumption. People who did see rocks fall from the sky were ridiculed.

  • Early this century scientists believed that atoms were indivisible. Although there was a wealth of evidence to the contrary it was not until the 1945 atomic bomb that many scientists accepted that atoms could be split.

 

These groups thought within a paradigm. A paradigm is a world view based on assumptions which, over time, become accepted without question.

Paradigms guide how people look at things and suggest the 'obviously sensible' explanations. Atmospheric lightning was obviously more sensible than rocks falling from the sky.

When people think within a paradigm they are less likely to acknowledge, or even see, the value of conflicting evidence or theories.

References:

Capra, F. THE TURNING POINT. London:Fontana, 1982.

Davies, P. GOD AND THE NEW PHYSICS. New York:Pelican, 1984.

Kuhn, T. THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS. Chicago:University Press, 1970.

Weber, R. DIALOGUES WITH SCIENTISTS AND SAGES: THE SEARCH FOR UNITY. London:Routledge, 1986.

Wilber, K. EYE TO EYE:THE QUEST FOR THE NEW PARADIGM. New York:Anchor Books, 1983.

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