what are the paradigm senses?also please define VAKOG...?

Answer 1

A. Two Different Senses Of "Paradigm"--Exemplar And Disciplinary Matrix

Normal science is characterized by unanimous assent by the members of a scientific discipline to a particular paradigm. In SSR, Kuhn uses the term paradigm to refer to two very different kinds of things.

1. Paradigms As Exemplars

Kuhn at first uses the term "paradigm" to refer to the particular, concrete achievement that defines by example the course of all subsequent research in a scientific discipline. In his 1969 postscript to SSR, Kuhn refers to an achievement of this sort as an "exemplar." Among the numerous examples of paradigms Kuhn gives are Newton's mechanics and theory of gravitation, Franklin's theory of electricity, and Copernicus' treatise on his heliocentric theory of the solar system. These works outlined a unified and comprehensive approach to a wide-ranging set of problems in their respective disciplines. As such, they were definitive in those disciplines. The problems, methods, theoretical principles, metaphysical assumptions, concepts, and evaluative standards that appear in such works constitute a set of examples after which all subsequent research was patterned. (Note, however, that Kuhn's use of the term "paradigm" is somewhat inconsistent. For example, sometimes Kuhn will refer to particular parts of a concrete scientific achievement as paradigms.)

2. Paradigms As Disciplinary Matrices

Later in SSR, Kuhn begins to use the term "paradigm" to refer not only to the concrete scientific achievement as described above, but to the entire cluster of problems, methods, theoretical principles, metaphysical assumptions, concepts, and evaluative standards that are present to some degree or other in an exemplar (i.e., the concrete, definitive scientific achievement). In his 1969 postscript to SSR, Kuhn refers to such a cluster as a "disciplinary matrix." A disciplinary matrix is an entire theoretical, methodological, and evaluative framework within which scientists conduct their research. This framework constitutes the basic assumptions of the discipline about how research in that discipline should be conducted as well as what constitutes a good scientific explanation. According to Kuhn, the sense of "paradigm" as a disciplinary matrix is less fundamental that the sense of "paradigm" as an exemplar. The reason for this is that the exemplar essentially defines by example the elements in the framework that constitutes the disciplinary matrix.