Related Terms • philosophy • science

Definition:
The word paradigm comes from the Greek paradeiknunai and means "to compare." In science and philosophy it has the same basic meaning as in common usage: a model or instance used as a basis or example for further work.

Thomas Kuhn popularized the term in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1996) by using it to describe how science works. According to Kuhn, scientific explanations of the world are controlled by a paradigm, some model of how the world is expected to work and into which actual observations are fitted, even if the fit is not very exact. As inexact fits accumulate, it becomes more apparent that the dominant paradigm is inadequate as a model of reality. When enough contradictions exist, a paradigm revolution occurs and a new paradigm is adopted.

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What is the Philosophy of Science?
The Philosophy of Science is concerned with, obviously enough, science - specifically, how science operates, what the goals of science should be, what relationship science should have with the rest of society, the differences between science and other activities, etc. Everything that happens in science has some relationship with the Philosophy of Science and is predicated upon some philosophical position, even though that may be rarely evident.

What is Philosophy?
What is philosophy? Is there any point in studying philosophy, or is it a useless subject? What are the different branches of philosophy - what's the difference between aestheitcs and ethics? What's the difference between metaphysics and epistemology?