Kuhn believed that a paradigm would make a sudden leap from one to the next, called a shift, where the new paradigm didnвЂ™t build on the foundations of the old, but completely change the rules for that вЂњbuilding.вЂќ An Example of a Paradigm Shift Revolutionary science, often ' fringe science' questions the paradigm itself. Normal science is the step-by-step scientific process, which builds patiently upon previous research. A paradigm shift is not a threat to science, but rather the very manner in which it progresses. Kuhn believed that science had periods of patiently gathering data within a paradigm, mixed in with the occasional revolution as the paradigm matured. But once in a while, enough anomalies accumulate within a field that the entire paradigm itself is required to change to accommodate them. It is very common for scientists to discard certain models or pick up emerging theories. 'The successive transition from one paradigm to another via revolution is the usual developmental pattern of mature science' - Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific revolutions Many modernВ historians are able to talk cogently about paradigms of the past вЂ“ naturally an easier task once they are no longer in those paradigms! Foucault was famous for his dissection of discourse, which can be understood as the language and symbols used to cement a paradigm. Though Kuhn focused on the sciences, his observations about paradigms apply to other disciplines. The certainty that the current paradigm is reality itself is precisely what makes it so difficult to accept alternatives. The body of pre-existing evidence in a field conditions and shapes the collection and interpretation of all subsequent evidence. In fact, Kuhn strongly suggested that research in a deeply entrenched paradigm invariably ends up reinforcing that paradigm, since anything that contradicts it is ignored or else pressed through the preset methods until it conforms to already established dogma. But science, much like any other discipline, is subject to ideological idiosyncrasies, preconceptions and hidden assumptions.

Many students who opt to study science do so with the belief that they are undertaking the most rational path to learning about objective reality. the questionsВ we ask about those observations.Kuhn was interested in how the overarching theories we have of reality itself influence the models and theories we make aboutВ reality within that paradigm.

Whats a paradigm shift