The literature offers multiple meanings for the concept of a paradigm. It is anything from an example to a framework to a world view. It is hard to pin down. This turns out to be both a blessing and a curse.
The world of interest is seen through its paradigm. The paradigm gives context, meaning and expectations for that world. We literally experience the world through the framework. To use a visual analogy, the paradigm is the lens through which we see the world. The worlds can be as expansive as scientific exploration and as narrow as the duck rabbit illustration on the banner of this website. The duck rabbit is a deal because you get two paradigms for the price of one. The rabbit has long ears, and the duck has a bill. If I looked at the image through a yellow lens, the duck rabbit will have a yellow hue.
I use dining out as an example of a paradigm in my book The Paradigm Lens: Informed Consent to Shared Decision Making. You are familiar with the activities of being seated, ordering, eating, and paying the bill. These are the essential elements and set our expectations for the experience. Most of the time you don’t receive instruction on how the paradigm works. You may learn it from observation. There seems to be no rule book to follow.
While you are dining out you are not aware that you are employing a paradigm for your experience. It is similar to me looking at things through my eyeglasses. I am not aware of my lenses. If I did bother to inspect them closely it might explain why I see things the way I do. Similarly, if I scrutinize the paradigm, I might better understand my expectations for my experience.
I find this challenge quite interesting. I wondered if we looked at an activity as a paradigm (through that lens) would we learn something new about the experience? The answer was yes for informed consent and shared decision-making. I explore this in my book.
Can this be extended to other areas? Will it yield interesting insights? That is the project underway, and this website is its home. The blogs deal with various worlds that interest me. They extend the book into areas of clinical research a close neighbor to health care and informed consent. Who knows where else it may extend?
Steve Kahn