How Is The Word “Paradigm” Used In Writing? When To Use It

There are a lot of fancy-sounding words found throughout the English language and the word “paradigm” is one of them. Have you heard this word and wondered what it meant? Maybe you’ve wanted to be able to properly use this word in some of your own sentences.

A “paradigm” is defined as a typical example of something. In this way, the “typical example” can be seen as a model. There are many different ways in which this word can be used such as, “This shows an emerging paradigm in the scientific world” meaning there’s an “emerging example” there.

The Word “Paradigm” Defined

The word “paradigm” comes to us from Greek and Latin. It first originated in the 15th century. In Greek “para” means “beside” while “deiknynai” means “to display or show.” When these words are combined together to form the word “paradigm” (“paradeiknyai”) we derive the meaning “to display side by side.”

The Etymology of the Word “Paradigm”

The purpose of a paradigm is to provide someone with an illustration of when similar things have happened. While you’re not meant to draw a conclusion from such an illustration, a “paradigm” can help guide you in the direction of one by providing you with a personal account. While this personal account isn’t meant to tell you exactly what you should or shouldn’t do, it will help guide you in your decisions.

Depending on what dictionary you look at, you’ll get a bit of a different definition for this word. These include:

• The Merriam-Webster Dictionary: A “paradigm” is a theoretical or philosophical framework in which the experiments that are used to support theories and laws are formulated.
• The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy: Scientific works can be used as an open-ended framework for structuring the concepts, results, and procedures of subsequent works. This doesn’t mean that there’s a rigid or mechanical approach. Instead, this is to be taken flexibly and allow room for creativity.
• The Oxford Dictionary: A “paradigm” is a typical example of something.

Understanding Scientific “Paradigms”

Thomas Kuhn, an influential philosopher of science in the 20th century, adopted the word “paradigm” when referring to the concepts and practices that define a scientific discipline. In his book, “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” he says that a scientific “paradigm” is one that’s universally recognizable so problems and solutions can be based upon it. He goes on to say that there will be “normal” times when this “paradigm” will dominate and then it’ll suddenly undergo some drastic changes.

Since a “paradigm” works in this way, Kuhn says that they have two aspects:

• When it comes to “normal” science, a “paradigm” is the set of exemplary experiments that people are likely to copy or emulate.
• There will be some shared preconceptions made before evidence has been collected. These preconceptions embody both hidden assumptions and quasi-metaphysical elements. For this reason, the interpretation of the “paradigm” itself may vary among individual scientists.

Kuhn goes to great lengths to show that the rationale we use to choose what examples we follow has to do with the way in which we view reality. This is why these “paradigms” are given the status of “exemplar.”

When someone is well-integrated within their specific discipline a “paradigm” may become so convincing that there’s no possible way for them to be able to consider any alternatives, especially if these alternatives are unconvincing or counter-intuitive in nature. Instead, these “paradigms” become opaque which means that they become the very basis for these people’s reality. When this happens there’s no longer room for any alternatives. This is because people are so convicted that their current “paradigm” is in fact reality and this disqualifies any evidence that may undermine it. This is why we have a lot of unreconciled anomalies in the world today.

Eventually, it’s these unreconciled anomalies that result in the incumbent “paradigm” being overthrown and replaced with a new “paradigm.” This is what Kuhn calls a “paradigm shift.” It’s somewhat similar to the process that’s undertaken to interpret an ambiguous image.

An example of a currently acceptable “paradigm” is the standard physics model. Thanks to the scientific method it’s possible to conduct investigations to determine whether phenomena may contradict or disprove a standard model. Unfortunately however obtaining grant money that’d allow you to conduct these types of experiments is extremely difficult. This is especially true when your experiments deviate to a large degree from the standard model that’s currently accepted. For instance, you’re far more likely to receive grant money if you were conducting experiments in regard to the mass of neutrinos or the decay of protons than if you were conducting experiments that were trying to find how the conservation of momentum could be reversed or if you were trying to engineer reverse time travel.

Various disciplines have invoked mechanisms similar to this one which is known as the Kuhnian “paradigm” and has been used in the philosophical discussion of science. Some of the other disciplines that have invoked these mechanisms include worldviews, ideologies, mindsets, and the idea that there are some major cultural themes in existence. These things are all somewhat similar in their meanings and in regard to how they apply to both smaller and larger scale examples of that discipline’s thoughts. Additionally, Michel Foucault has used the terms episteme and discourse, mathesis and taxinomy, to discuss Kuhn’s original meaning of “paradigm.”

What Paradigm Shifts Are

In Kuhn’s book entitled “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” we’re told that the successful transition between “paradigms” is a normal developmental pattern that’s found within “mature science.” In other words, a “paradigm” shift occurs as a response to the accumulation of critical anomalies and also when a new theory is proposed that could encompass the older, relevant data and explain why such anomalies have occurred. This is why new “paradigms” are so dramatic.

This is something that happened in the area of physics near the end of the 19th century. At that time, there was a statement that had been generally attributed to the physicist Lord Kelvin. It said that he claimed that nothing new would ever again be discovered in the world of physics. Everything from that point on would merely be a “more precise measurement.” However, 5 years after Lord Kelvin said this, Albert Einstein published a paper regarding special relativity. In this paper, Einstein challenged the rules that had been established by Newtonian mechanics. For more than 200 years these rules had been used to explain force and motion. Eventually, this was accepted and led to Kuhn’s model being modified. Herein lies a popular example of what a “paradigm” shift is and how it occurs.

There have been a lot of different “paradigm” shifts that have happened throughout our history since the time of Einstein. Some of the other examples that are commonplace throughout our society today include:

• A medical “paradigm” shift occurs when something moves from a “clinical judgment” to become evidence-based medicine.
• In sociology, a “paradigm” shift occurs when something moves from p-hacking to replication.
• Software engineers deal with “paradigm” shifts when there’s a transition from the Rational Paradigm to the Empirical Paradigm.
• Artificial intelligence (AI) also deals with “paradigm” shifts when we move from classical AI to data-driven AI.

While Kuhn’s idea was revolutionary at that time, it’s since caused major changes in how we talk about academic subjects like science. In this way, we can say that Kuhn’s idea was a “paradigm” shift in regards to the history and sociology of science even though this is something that Kuhn wouldn’t recognize himself.

Example Sentences

Now that you know how to define the word “paradigm” you may want to start using it more frequently. Here are a few examples of sentences to help you get started:

• Terrance is the paradigm of a perfect gentleman.
• Thanks to Dr. Sydney’s history in the field, he’s been able to create a visual paradigm of this theory.
• The computer world has been taken by storm simply because John created such an awesome programming paradigm.
• Due to 9/11, the American government has created a new paradigm regarding domestic security.
• Although Lisa isn’t your conventional teacher, she still supports the educational paradigm that more traditional teachers use.
• Mother Theresa is a paradigm of virtue for all Catholics.
• The math teacher demonstrated the different types of angles a triangle may have by using a bendable paradigm.
• If we start over with this new construction paradigm it’s going to delay the building’s completion by about two months.
• When you’re talking about the normal economic paradigm, demand is determined by prices.
• When it comes to the corporate world, Jasmine is a paradigm of honor.

Conclusion

When you’re discussing a “paradigm” you’re discussing a common example of something which can be seen as a model. This is why this word is used so frequently: It simplifies what a person is trying to say and yet is able to still communicate the same idea. With this in mind, you may want to start using the word “paradigm” more frequently in your conversations and writing.