The term “paradigm” is used in a way now familiar in everyday speech – such as in the phrase “a new paradigm” or “paradigm shift”. But this kind of usage has a particular and recent origin. It comes from a philosopher of science whose name was Thomas Kuhn. In the late 20th century, this philosopher undertook a systematic study of the history of science and it how progresses. What he persuasively showed was that science from time to time undergoes “scientific revolutions” — it enters a new paradigm or undergoes a paradigm shift. Such revolutions arise when an existing scientific paradigm encounters more and more unanswered questions that it is…