Question

1. According to Kuhn, what is a paradigm? What is its role in scientific discovery and can paradigms be compared? Explain. Point out at least one strength and one weakness to Kuhn’s theory of paradigms as applied to the field of engineering.

Answer 1

A paradigm can be described as a comprehensive model that gives people a set of rules and perspective for solving a problem. Like for example, in math you know how to solve algebraic equation because you know set of rules to solve it, these set of rules are nothing but the paradigm for that field. It plays very important role in scientific discovery as for every research about to begin, we need set of rules and assumptions for it, since scientific inquiry is a quantitative science, involving lot of number, equation and constants in order to work, we need paradigm to know if we’re doing it right or not. Yes it can be compared based upon the life cycle of Kuhn cycle, when there is time for paradigm change we can compare it with previous one. One strength of his theory is the paradigm, which give important meaning to the cycle but one of many drawback his theory has is, the revisionist nature of history and non-scientific prejudice that dictates normal science, which are exceptions to his models and theory.