paradigmaváltást

Paradigmaváltás, a Hungarian term, translates directly to "paradigm shift" in English. It refers to a fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline. The concept was popularized by the philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn in his 1962 book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." Kuhn argued that scientific progress is not a cumulative process of discovery, but rather a series of paradigm shifts where one dominant scientific theory is replaced by another that is fundamentally different.

A paradigm, in Kuhn's sense, is not just a theory, but a whole worldview that includes the accepted theories, laws, methods, and assumptions that guide scientific research within a particular field. When anomalies or inconsistencies arise that cannot be explained by the current paradigm, it can lead to a period of crisis. Eventually, a new paradigm emerges that can account for these anomalies, often through a different set of fundamental assumptions. This transition from an old paradigm to a new one is what constitutes a paradigmaváltás or paradigm shift. Examples of paradigm shifts include the Copernican revolution in astronomy, which replaced the geocentric model with the heliocentric model, and the development of quantum mechanics, which challenged classical physics.