Paradigm Shift
Version 1.0.0 · Updated 2026-07-28
CORE DEFINITION
A paradigm shift is a fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline. It is a concept in the philosophy of science that was introduced and brought into the common lexicon by the American physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn. Even though Kuhn restricted the use of the term to the natural sciences, the concept of a paradigm shift has also been used in many other fields.
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A paradigm shift is a fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline. It is a concept in the philosophy of science that was introduced and brought into the common lexicon by the American physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn.
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A paradigm shift refers to a revolutionary break in scientific progress where an old paradigm is entirely replaced by a new one, rather than a linear accumulation. The mechanism is the accumulation of anomalies: when the old paradigm encounters more and more unexplained anomalies, a crisis erupts, and the new paradigm reconstructs the entire worldview at once with higher explanatory power.
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- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm_shiftverified
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