Common Ground Common Sense > Kuhn's Paradigm Shift

rla

Feb 26 2007, 09:47 AM

QUOTE(Magmak1 @ Feb 20 2007, 12:28 PM)

We'll know the paradigm shift was for real when the water starts boiling, the egg cracks and the daisies bloom...:

'Picture an egg just sitting there. No one pays it much attention until, one day, the egg cracks open and out jumps a chicken. From outside the egg, it looks like a sudden change. From the chicken's point of view, it was evolution, growth and development. The cracking of the egg was just the next step. In metamorphosis, there is no "one big thing". In going from good to great, the process is cumulative, gradual, and without fanfare.'

'Leave a kettle of water sitting at room temperature, and the water will retain its liquid form for weeks. But increase the flow of energy through the kettle by putting it on a hot stove and, within minutes, you'll induce a phase transition in the water, transforming it into gas.

Take a field of tall meadow buttercups accustomed to nightly frost and ten hours of sun, then raise the temperature 30 degrees and add four hours of sunlight. After a month or so, your field will be golden yellow. A linear increase in energy can produce a nonlinear change in the system that conducts that energy.'

There are a lot of people increasing the energy that is flowing into the system.

rla

Feb 26 2007, 10:05 AM

MagMak1, PP, Arne and others had a discussion of Paradigm shift going in the thread on, World Can Halt Bushes Crimes by Dumping $ which was closed. I invite people who are interested to pick it up here. The topic has been discussed in other threads also. In the last discussion we were making a distinction in change related to paradigm shift and change related to maturation and
learning. I view maturation and learning as a layering process whereas I see paridigm shift as
a chaining and branching effect. They both occur over time and it may take a long time for an individual person to get ready for a paradigm shift but when it happens fairly quickly. As in an ah
ha experience, though it may come and go a few times before it becomes Permanent. A paradigm shift is a re-organization of one's major information processing schema. Like changing operating systems on a PC.

winston smith

Feb 26 2007, 10:37 AM

QUOTE(rla @ Feb 26 2007, 08:05 AM)

A paradigm shift is a re-organization of one's major information processing schema. Like changing operating systems on a PC.

It's more than just that, it is a complete social and cultural re-organization and re-processing of information. Kuhn says that no two paradigms can exist at the same time to explain the same phenomenon: you can't simultaniously believe in a geocentric and heliocentric universe. Global Warming has become such an event.

Magmak1

Feb 26 2007, 11:32 AM

QUOTE(winston smith @ Feb 26 2007, 01:37 PM)

It's more than just that, it is a complete social and cultural re-organization and re-processing of information. Kuhn says that no two paradigms can exist at the same time to explain the same phenomenon: you can't simultaniously believe in a geocentric and heliocentric universe. Global Warming has become such an event.

Who is Kuhn? What has he written? Books, articles, studies, etc?

Guess I'll have to fire up my Google sometime soon.

rla

Feb 26 2007, 12:33 PM

QUOTE(Magmak1 @ Feb 26 2007, 11:32 AM)

Who is Kuhn? What has he written? Books, articles, studies, etc?

Guess I'll have to fire up my Google sometime soon.

Hi, I,m still unpacking books from my last move but I finally found it:I. Bernard Cohen, Revolution In Science, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, 1985. 711 Pages.

rla

Feb 26 2007, 01:18 PM

QUOTE(rla @ Feb 26 2007, 12:33 PM)

Hi, I,m still unpacking books from my last move but I finally found it:I. Bernard Cohen, Revolution In Science, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, 1985. 711 Pages.

Actually, this is a historical review of the notion of scientific revolutions, including a review of
TS Kuhn's earlier work, Structure of Scientific Revolutions, in which the term, "Paradigm
Shift" was coined.

winston smith

Feb 26 2007, 03:01 PM

QUOTE(Magmak1 @ Feb 26 2007, 09:32 AM)

Who is Kuhn? What has he written? Books, articles, studies, etc?

Guess I'll have to fire up my Google sometime soon.

Thomas Kuhn wrote a seminal work called, "The Structure of the Scientific Revolution". It's an absolute must-read for most cultural studies post-grad courses. A big part of cultural theory, right up there with Marx, Weber, Baudrillard, Levi-Strauss, and Fish. He first proposed the theory of cultural shifts in perception, which he called Paradigm Shifts. Basically, he proposes that once a culture adopts a new paradigm, the old one is discarded.

rla

Feb 26 2007, 04:24 PM

QUOTE(winston smith @ Feb 26 2007, 03:01 PM)

Thomas Kuhn wrote a seminal work called, "The Structure of the Scientific Revolution". It's an absolute must-read for most cultural studies post-grad courses. A big part of cultural theory, right up there with Marx, Weber, Baudrillard, Levi-Strauss, and Fish. He first proposed the theory of cultural shifts in perception, which he called Paradigm Shifts. Basically, he proposes that once a culture adopts a new paradigm, the old one is discarded.

The adherrents of the old paradigm die off.

Pegatha

Feb 26 2007, 05:44 PM

There's still more to it. A paradigm explains a phenomenon utilizing the best available information. The experts all tend to agree on what the paradigm consists of - like the scientists who believed that the sun revolved around the earth. Then a new upstart comes along, and looks at the available facts in a new way. Threatened, the old guard reviles the new guy. But, gradually, new facts are observed/discovered which lend weight to the new theory. Younger souls are more open to the new guy, and, slowly, slowly, the paradigm shifts to encompass the new information.

My favorite, relatively recent example of this was a brave, stubborn Australian doctor, who made the novel discovery that stomach ulcers are caused by bacteria called H. pylori. The medical establishment were appalled and indignant! But he was right. Shift!

Magmak1

Feb 26 2007, 06:55 PM

Thanks, folks...

winston smith

Feb 26 2007, 07:17 PM

QUOTE(rla @ Feb 26 2007, 02:24 PM)

The adherrents of the old paradigm die off.

Not really- oh, I guess, eventually- but the old paradigm becomes antiquated. Vietnam and the anti-war response was a paradigm shift, and IMHO 9/11 and the Bush Administration response will prove to be a paradigm shift- and not a good one, I'm afraid. A good part of looking at a paradigm shift is whether it is a real shift, or just a reaction to a temporary societal stressor. Clifford Geertz addresses that issue in depth.

rla

Feb 27 2007, 09:51 AM

QUOTE(winston smith @ Feb 26 2007, 07:17 PM)

Not really- oh, I guess, eventually- but the old paradigm becomes antiquated. Vietnam and the anti-war response was a paradigm shift, and IMHO 9/11 and the Bush Administration response will prove to be a paradigm shift- and not a good one, I'm afraid. A good part of looking at a paradigm shift is whether it is a real shift, or just a reaction to a temporary societal stressor. Clifford Geertz addresses that issue in depth.

I think we're all on the same page but their is still lots of ambiguity but that's o.k. A little more dialogue will clear that up. One characteristic of paradigm shift, that hasn't been emphasized
enough is that it is a set of inter-related dimensions, each of which is moderately correlated with each other and more strongly correlated to a single designated indicator of the paradigm shift.
This takes us back to the Liberal - Conservative discussion which never gets finished.

rla

Feb 27 2007, 09:57 AM

QUOTE(winston smith @ Feb 26 2007, 07:17 PM)

Not really- oh, I guess, eventually- but the old paradigm becomes antiquated. Vietnam and the anti-war response was a paradigm shift, and IMHO 9/11 and the Bush Administration response will prove to be a paradigm shift- and not a good one, I'm afraid. A good part of looking at a paradigm shift is whether it is a real shift, or just a reaction to a temporary societal stressor. Clifford Geertz addresses that issue in depth.

I agree that many people have taken before and after Vietnam and before and after 9/11
to represent a paradigm shift for them, but I don't think either of the Kuhns would consider them
a historical paradigm shift.

rla

May 1 2007, 01:45 PM

QUOTE(rla @ Feb 27 2007, 09:51 AM)

I think we're all on the same page but their is still lots of ambiguity but that's o.k. A little more dialogue will clear that up. One characteristic of paradigm shift, that hasn't been emphasized
enough is that it is a set of inter-related dimensions, each of which is moderately correlated with each other and more strongly correlated to a single designated indicator of the paradigm shift.
This takes us back to the Liberal - Conservative discussion which never gets finished.

The paradym shift that started with the rapid acceptance of a new science in physics and biology
was much slower in the social and behavioral sciences and is just now cresting for a major shift.
The main thing to remember about paradygm shifts is that they involve a large number of slightly correlated variables which, taken together seem like a major shift in the person's world view
and attitudes. One of the major markers of this paradigm shift is the acceptance of, "Evolution"
and the partial integration of its implications into one's own person construct system.

rla

May 5 2007, 02:33 PM

QUOTE(rla @ Feb 27 2007, 09:51 AM)

I think we're all on the same page but their is still lots of ambiguity but that's o.k. A little more dialogue will clear that up. One characteristic of paradigm shift, that hasn't been emphasized
enough is that it is a set of inter-related dimensions, each of which is moderately correlated with each other and more strongly correlated to a single designated indicator of the paradigm shift.
This takes us back to the Liberal - Conservative discussion which never gets finished.

What we are talking about here is a very non-frequent event so that it is difficult to describe in
in the abstract in that it would normally not be expected to occur more than once in a life time.
The results of making such a shift is a different way of viewing the World and One's place in it.
The perceptual-conceptual shift usually occurs rather quickly although it may take years for some people to integrate the change into all of their thought schemas. How much self-awareness the
Person has and how permeable their personal construct system is determines change.

jeffmoskin

May 5 2007, 03:33 PM

Be careful what you wish for - - you could get it.

IMHO, the BushWar is all about forcing Dollar Hegemony.

Having lost our manufacturing base, there is far less normal demand for US Dollars on the planet, and we now have so many of them out in global circulation the the FED stopped publishing M3 last year.

Hmmmmm.

Think there is something they don't want us to know?

Like how fast the printing presses are running?

By controlling the availability of oil, and by breaking the neck of the man who DARED to sell oil for EUROS, the BushCo Regime is keeping the music going while they are removing the chairs.

But the music must stop eventually. WIll you have a place to sit?