Science 2200

Paradigms

• Your world view on a certain topic

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What do you see?

Why shapes?

• Why do two people who see the same cloud, see different things in it?

• How do we know what we see when we see it, and what is real and what is not.

Reality?

• What is real?

• How do we know when something is real?

• What sensory information allows us to determine whether or not our perceptions are correct?

• Try and focus for a minute on the sensory input in the room where you are now.

• You may become aware of a great number of things, but you will have to ignore some of them.

• There is too much sensory information bombarding our senses for us to be aware of it.

To much information 1

• Time flies like an arrow.

• Fruit flies like a banana.» Groucho Marx

To much information 1

• Time flies like an arrow.

• Fruit flies like a banana.» Groucho Marx

The word "like" is being used in two entirely different contexts.

*Your brain is stuck on a certain meaning of like, a paradigm

To much information 2

• How do you say the word…

To much information 3

• Give a thumbs up

• Now with your other hand point to it

• Got it? Now switch!

» Can you do it??

Too much information!

• Our brains decode information that it thinks is important

• ignores other information

• However it is done, the brain must make a decision to which information is acted upon, which is stored without review, and which is ignored entirely.

A paradigm

• A paradigm is a way of organizing and condensing sensory information .

• paradigms help in the study of physical science by organizing information to understand our world.

A paradigm

Example

• People once understood the solar system as a place where earth was at the center of everything,

• Now we see the solar system as a place where the sun is at the center

Examples of Paradigms

• What kind of food is appropriate for breakfast?

Examples of Paradigms

• What kind of food is appropriate for breakfast?

Food is closely linked with culture and cultural paradigms whether taboos or just preferences.

How hungry would you have to be to eat a family pet?

Which side of the road do you drive on?

• Why do we drive on the right side of the road instead of the left side?

• Is the right side better, or are we just used to it?

In several island nations worldwide, driving on the left is the paradigm.

Which way does the bill of your cap point?

• Even fads are a type of paradigm. How do you decide what clothes to wear on a given day?

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Alive or Ghost?• BHOPAL, India

Is Raju Raghuvanshi alive or dead? Ask Raju, he'll tell you he is alive. But ask his friends and family, and they'll tell you the man you just spoke with is a ghost sent to haunt them.

Believed by his friends and family to have died in prison, Raju returned home earlier this month from his short jail stint to shouts of "Help! Ghost!" and the sounds of neighbors locking their doors in his home village of Katra.

"My family thinks I am dead," he said in a phone interview Monday. "They will not permit me to enter my home because they think I am a ghost."

Ostracized by the people of Katra, about 280 miles from Bhopal, he's now living in a nearby village and struggling to prove he's alive.

The best proof he had _ that his feet were still properly attached, not turned backward as ghosts' feet are thought to be _ was dismissed by villagers.

He said his brothers even "argued that they had completed all religious death ceremonies" and he should not have come back to haunt them.

Rural India remains deeply traditional and many in Katra share the traditional Hindu belief that they will be haunted by a ghost if ceremonies are not performed to ensure the soul of the deceased makes a peaceful transition into its next life.

Rumors over Raju’s death began when he was sent to prison in October for a minor tax infraction.

He fell ill there and was transferred to a prison hospital in another district, from where word spread that he had died and that his body had been cremated because no one had retrieved it.

After being turned away by his neighbors after his release, Raju finally went to the police, who are trying to help convince the people of Katra that he is alive, said the area's police superintendent, N.V. Vaigankar.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

Senses are easily fooled

• Did you ever drink sprite, expecting it to be water?

• Because the senses are so easily fooled we use paradigms to avoid having to rely entirely on immediate sensory input.

Paradigm shift

• A change in a held belief

• Paradigm shifts are very rare occurrences

• Even when presented with clear supporting evidence for the new view of the world, people will often cling to their current view.

Are we the midst of a paradigm shift?

• Has the old view that Earth and all the things on it exist for the sole benefit of humans changed?

Activity

• Research and create one of the following to compare before and after paradigms.

• Choices:– Create a poster– Write a paragraph (1/2 page)– Create a pamphlet– Make a comic– Email or letter to argue which is true

Choices

• Fishing with no limits Vs. fishing sustainably

• Using pesticides on crops Vs. organic farming

• Littering Vs. recycling/composting

• Using all resources Vs. Environmental protection

Examples