Thomas Kuhn's Idea Of Paradigm Shift

Once a paradigm shift occurs, the prior knowledge known to a scientist is rendered obsolete, and he/she is forced to adapt to the new concepts. As a result of the paradigm shift a change in consciousness of a person is achieved.

Other than groundbreaking scientific discoveries, I believe that paradigm shift can be used to describe anthropological as well as sociological discoveries and changes that have occurred overtime, and are related to the consciousness of human beings. The shift from the belief of Adam and Eve being the first man and woman created by God, to the Darwinian Theory of Evolution, can be described as paradigm altering. This shift altered our consciousness of man, how he came into existence and the evolutionary steps to achieve the present form.

Sociology, is the study of human’s social behavior. As we have already seen, a person’s social behavior is to a great extent dependent on his surroundings. A shift in a person’s consciousness is inevitable when he moves from a rural village to an urban city. Consciousness of a person changes as he now tries to adapt to a new environment, and this shift is paradigm

My understanding of mirror neurons has answered several questions pertaining to the issue of consciousness and has helped me reach certain conclusions as well. Empathy, as mentioned earlier is a human emotion. Human emotions are the basis of human consciousness. Emotions make us aware of our surrounding, thereby making us more conscious. The fact that we pet a homeless kitten, is because we can empathize with it. This happens because the mirror neurons trigger a similar sense of hunger and depression similar to the kitten’s state, making us conscious of another being’s pains. It is consciousness that made a misanthrope like Ashoka the Great to lay down his arms after the Battle of Kalinga, and spend the remainder of his life as an

Reid over assessed the human brain, when he tried to explain the concept of memory vanishing through logic. Human consciousness is not something that can be quantified, or explained through logic. There are several inexplicable phenomena that might then seem illogical to Reid. People who have been in accidents, often lose memory of that accident. However, they continue to remain scared of heavy vehicles or crossing roads as pedestrians. This event is not in accordance with the Brave Officer Paradox. As mentioned earlier, the reason for this fear of vehicles might be because, the memory of having being in a accident is seated in our sub-conscious, and a relapse might occur resulting in paranoia. Thus I am in strong support of the Lockean theory of memory and