"Frameworks, Paradigms and Paradigm Shifts" Reflection 2

What is the meaning of truth? If truths are based on factual understandings, are we capable of questioning facts? Is our ability to to believe in what we perceive to be real a matter of point of view? Do we, as rationalizing people, perceive reality based on what our culture has endowed in us or do we question all of our established preconceptions before making judgements?

According to “Frameworks, Paradigms and Paradigm Shifts,” we all have paradigms and paradigms within paradigms. Our different paradigms are based on observations and connections made by our society, culture, and other preconceived “standards” established throughout history. The article shows how through time, paradigms shared by many people have evolved and changed alongside the many inventions that man has created. As men developed the use of tools for hunting and cutting, a paradigm shift occurred which correlated directly with our evolution. Man’s physical appearance changed to accommodate the newly discovered way of life. Man’s ability to wear other animal’s skins and the ability to cook are only a few of the changes that inevitably led to the growth of the human brain.

As more sophisticated discoveries and inventions came about, societal norms began to emerge and large groups of people were able to influence each other and establish traditions. The concept of tradition can be considered a major player working against paradigm shifts. As we hold our traditions familiar and even sacred, does questioning them become an automatic crime against nature? In this twenty first century man, as a society, has made many advances in culture and in what is considered wrong compared to centuries before.

However, we still chose to not question many established paradigms. We accept everything that has been passed down since our ancestors discovered that jagged rock. The fact that change is a scary notion for some does not mean that any change is negative. When man stops fearing paradigm shifts and accepts them as a natural change in the order of life, they will no longer be “shifts” they will merely be paradigm “progressions.”