In my view, the term “paradigm” is a conceptual framework which affects people’s worldview and prescribes their behavioral and thinking patterns implicitly. In other words, a paradigm works for our belief system embedded in our unconsciousness. By virtue of having this system, we may be able to adjust to this real world automatically. In addition, a paradigm has a powerful centripetal force. For example, if one paradigm is dominant in the world, the people who follow the paradigm have the same worldview of the paradigm. In that sense, a paradigm can be called an invisible machine which creates a number of similar people who perceive the world in the same way.
Some people may ask me “How are paradigms formed, maintained, and changed?” The response to that question is the following. As for the process of forming a paradigm, a person who notices a limitation of the old paradigm is required. I think every paradigm has an inevitable and intrinsic limitation in it. However, most of the people who are in the paradigm and blindly believe it are not able to notice the limitation in the paradigm. That’s why a person who can perceive an inherent limitation embedded in the paradigm is required to form a new paradigm. Although the existence of a person who notices the limitation is needed for a new paradigm, this is just a first requirement to create a new paradigm. In addition to that requirement, the existence of “followers” is key to form a new paradigm. If a person detects a limitation in the old paradigm and proposes a new paradigm, having no followers, his or her endeavor will be doomed to end in failure. That will not be a new “paradigm” but a mere new “idea.” On the other hand, if there are a great number of followers, the audacious “idea” may become a new “paradigm.”
As for maintaining a new paradigm, I think there is a kind of “critical mass.” As a new paradigm is pervaded broadly, the paradigm comes to acquire more powers in order to maintain it. Lastly, the process of changing a paradigm is the almost same as the process of forming it. The advent of a person who is aware of a limitation in a current paradigm is essential. Then, he or she puts forward a new paradigm and obtains followers. In conclusion, a person who can recognize an immanent limitation in the old paradigm and followers are pivotal to form, maintain, and change a paradigm.
