Critical Thinking@Julia’s blog

Paradigms are one of those words that are bandied around in academic discourse. However, as I was reminded recently by a Phd student, the word was used in a very particular way by Kuhn (1962) and when I take my battered copy of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions from the bookshelf and re-examine the 1969 Postscript I am again struck by Kuhn’s emphasis on a paradigm as an exemplar. This definition is often overlooked when we reduce the concept of ‘paradigm’ to being equivalent to the concept of a shared theoretical framework.

By exemplar Kuhn is calling attention to that way that repeating actions and thoughts (such as learning how to set up and do standard scientific experiments) molds the way that we perceive reality. We are building a structure within our brain that focuses our perception and cognition in certain ways and leaves out other ways of seeing and thinking. Each time that I repeat an action or a behavior I am growing more connections in my brain and reinforcing that way of thinking. Some wonderful examples of this have been given by Prof Susan Greenfield (Brain of the Future) . She also spoke of this in her address at the Sir Walter Murdoch lecture (September 2008)

The question arises of: how do I step outside of the paradigm that has been created by all the exemplars in my life when I want to think critically and creatively? How do I see afresh and new? How do I create new thoughts? This is both more difficult and more easy that you may imagine, since I would suggest to you that 98% of your thoughts each day are the same. They may be rephrased in slightly different ways but if you pay attention you may be shocked by how little newness arises in daily thinking. Then talk to a small ‘pre-school’ child and notice how much newness arises in their thinking each day! ‘Why is the sky blue?’, ‘Why is the grass green?’ , they ask and so forth. We know the answers to these questions as adults but we tend to not use that same childlike attitude of wonder towards the world, which would assist us to ask: ‘why does this product come with all this packaging?’ ‘Is it necessary?’ ‘What would happen if we, as a country, refused to allow in any products from overseas that had unnecessary and waste producing packaging?’ Why should household consumers be responsible for the waste generated by manufactures through over packaging of products? Suddenly the paradigm of solid waste management looks different when we ask these simple questions of taken for granted roles and responsibilities.

So, critical thinking is also creative and playful thinking;

photo credit: robertrice

it is the possibility of imagining the impossible which allows us to grow new ways of seeing, in our brains.