IN the field of science, the term “paradigm shift” was first popularised by Thomas Kuhn in his famous book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

Kuhn contrasts paradigm shifts, which characterise a scientific revolution, to the activity of normal science, which he describes as scientific work done in an existing or prevailing framework, or a paradigm.

Paradigm shifts arise when the dominant and existing framework, which normal science operates in, is rendered incompatible with new phenomena, therefore, facilitating the adoption of a new framework, or theory, or paradigm.

Even though Kuhn restricts the use of the term to the natural sciences, the concept of a “paradigm shift” has been popularised and used in numerous non-scientific contexts or fields to describe a profound change in a fundamental way of viewing “truths”, or defining one’s perception of events.

A paradigm shift

When perceptions have moved or changed, we say: “A new paradigm is formed.” The new paradigm gains followers and resistors. For Kuhn, this stage, or the process of change, entails both – a kind of resistance to change, and a movement for the adoption of the new perspective.

According to Max Planck, this process can only happen by natural attrition. He adds: “A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather, because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”

Because scientists are committed to the prevalent and dominant paradigm, “paradigm shifts” involve gestalt-like changes; Kuhn stresses that paradigms are almost like religious-type conversions.

However, paradigms can often gain influence by predicting phenomena better, or by being more subjectively pleasing to the changing, moving adherents. In this phase, proponents of competing paradigms address what Kuhn considers the core of a paradigm debate.

The new discourse centres on whether a given paradigm will be a good guide to resolve future problems – things that neither the proposed nor dominant paradigm is capable of solving currently.

In the long run, the new paradigm becomes institutionalised as the dominant one. Textbooks are rewritten, obscuring the revolutionary process, but often highlighting this different and new “changed perspective”.

New paradigm discourse: Malaysia 2.0

This past week, a few of us were involved in a serious new discourse on Malaysia’s formal education system. Our focus was on primary- and secondary-level education. I call it “new” because it was a dialogue with new and unlikely partners.

We had two “academic-type individuals” and another two “party-liked and political-type speakers”, with a moderator belonging to one of the oldest, mainstream and controlling-the-discourse parties in the country.

While the summary and edited versions are still not available, the full, unedited Facebook version is, and can be found on Utusan Online’s new programme, Sembang Online.

The four of us who participated in the new discourse agreed that we would like to do more such “sembang”, having received about 16,000 viewers after only the first round of our so-called “conversation”!

Any conversation is never a monologue by the moderator or any one panellist, but rather, a conversation between all the speakers, with a conversationalist moderator who allows a free-flowing discourse, defined and constrained only by the theme and normal cultural courtesies.

I label this the “Malaysian 2.0 Discourse” because our operating system (OS) must be premised on the federal constitution, and our historical and already-agreed frames of reference. Any new OS cannot redefine past contracts, but must seek to update itself, with a team of conscious and self-aware Merdeka-generation Malaysians! – June 30, 2019.

* KJ John worked in public service for 32 years, retired, and started a civil group for which he is chairman of the board. He writes to inform and educate, arguing for integration with integrity in Malaysia. He believes such a transformation has to start with the mind before it sinks into the heart!

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.