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From the late 1800s the word paradigm refers to a thought pattern in any scientific disciplines or other epistemological context. Initially the word was specific to grammar: the 1900 Merriam-Webster dictionary defines its technical use only in the context of grammar or, in rhetoric, as a term for an illustrative parable or fable.

The best known use of the word in the context of a scientific discipline was by philosopher Thomas Kuhn who used it to describe a set of practices in science. It was and is widely abused. Kuhn himself came to prefer the terms exemplar and normal science, which have more exact philosophical meaning. However, in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Kuhn defines a scientific paradigm as:

• what is to be observed and scrutinized,
• the kind of questions that are supposed to be asked and probed for answers in relation to this subject,
• how these questions are to be put,
• how the results of scientific investigations should be interpreted.

The formally-defined term groupthink, and the term mindset, have very similar meanings that apply to smaller and larger scale examples of disciplined thought. Michel FoucaultMichel Foucault ( October 15, 1926 June 26, 1984) was a French philosopher and "historian of systems of thought". His writings have had an enormous impact on many fields including literary criticism and theory, philosophy (especially philosophy of science used the terms epistemeAs distinguished from techne, the Greek word episteme often translated as knowledge''. Michel Foucault used it to mean the regime of truth that underlay all the discourses of a particular epoch. Paul Stoler (1989:130) defined it as "that apparatus which m and discourseIn Semantics, discourses are linguistic units composed of several sentences in other words, conversations, arguments or speeches. Conventional phraseology often characterises a discourse as 'learned', as in: 'The Professor delivered a learned discourse on, mathesis and taxinomia , for aspects of a "paradigm" in Kuhn's original sense. Read more about this in the paradigm shiftA paradigm shift is the term given for the process and result of a change in paradigm usually total revolution in theory or worldview. It was originally a term referring to science but has become more widely applied to other realms of human experience as, sociology of knowledgeThe sociology of knowledge is the study of the social origins of ideas, and of the effects that prevailing ideas have on societies. Compare history of ideas. The term first came into widespread use in the 1920s, when a number of German-speaking sociologis and philosophy of scienceThe philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy which studies the philosophical foundations, presumptions and implications of science both of the natural sciences like physics and biology and the social sciences such as psychology and economics. articles, where these words are placed in context.

1 Other uses

Probably the most common use of the word paradigm is in the sense of Weltanschauung. For example, in social science, the term is used to describe the set of experiences, beliefs and values that affect the way an individual perceives reality and responds to that perception. Social scientists have adopted the Kuhnian phrase "paradigm shift" to denote a particular social phenomenon rather than what was originally meant by Kuhn's study on the practices and development of science. Even occultists, notably chaos magiciansHistory Following the death of Aleister Crowley, magic as practiced by the still somewhat sparse occult subculture in Britain tended to become more experimentalist, personal and a lot less bound to the magical traditions of established magical orders., use the term - to describe a shift in personal belief systems concerning magic ( magic theory).

The word paradigm is also used to indicate a pattern or model (Source:dictionary.com) or an outstandingly clear or typical example or archetype (Source:m-w.com). The term is frequently used in this sense in the design professions. Design Paradigms or archetypes, comprise functional prescedents for design solutions. The best known references on design paradigms are Design Paradigms: A Sourcebook for Creative Visualization, by Wake, and Design Paradigms by Petroski.

Some language purists feel that among "business philosophers" and advocates of any type of change whatsoever, the term paradigm is widely abused and in that context bears no meaning whatsoever. Some believe it should be abolished from the English language.