What the heck is a paradigm anyway?

Kuhn believes that a paradigm is "a recognized 'pattern' that a particular scientific ****somebody must follow in order to engage in a particular type of scientific activity, and it includes ****existing worldviews, basic theories, paradigms, methods, means, standards, and all other things related to scientific research. " After 1960 it refers to the way of thinking in the field of science and in the line of the theory of knowledge.

Characteristics of a paradigm:

1. A paradigm is recognized to a certain extent;

2. A paradigm is a whole consisting of basic laws, theories, applications, and related instrumentation, etc., and its existence provides scientists with a program of research;

3. Paradigms also provide successful precedents for scientific research that can be imitated. It can be seen, in Kuhn's "paradigm theory", paradigm is ultimately a theoretical system, paradigm breakthroughs lead to a scientific revolution, so that science to get a new look.

Expanded:

Philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn gives a modern usage of the term

The philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn gives the modern usage of the term, noting that a paradigm is a series of activities that qualify a scientific discipline at a given time. He himself prefers the more philosophical concepts of exemplar and normal science. In his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, he defines a scientific paradigm as:

Those that are observed and examined, those relevant questions that are asked and those that are hoped to be answered, how the questions are organized, and how scientific conclusions are interpreted. Many people do not notice this feature of Kuhn's thought, and tend to cite Kuhn's interpretation of a particular question according to their own need to elaborate their own questions. As a result, certain biases are unavoidable. British scholar Margaret Masterman (Margaret Masterman) made a systematic examination of Kuhn's view of paradigms, (1987) he listed 21 different meanings of paradigms used by Kuhn from The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and summarized them into three types or three aspects:

One is as a belief, a metaphysical discernment, which is a philosophical paradigm or meta-paradigm;

two, as a scientific habit, a scholarly tradition, a specific scientific achievement, it is the sociological paradigm;

three, as a tool that relies on its own successful demonstration, a method of solving puzzles, and an image to be used for analogies, it is the artificial or constructive paradigm.

Reference:

Paradigm - Baidu Encyclopedia