Year: 2001
Type: article
Abstract: I Prevailing linear paradigm Kuhn (1970: 6-17) argued that a scientific discipline progresses through 'paradigm shifts' separated by periods of relative calm during which a particular set of rules and assumptions (the paradigm) defines the boundaries for 'legitimate' practices in that field.Capra (1983), amongst others, demonstrated that the natural sciences adhered until recently to the dictates of a linear paradigm that originated from ideas advanced by scholars such as Hobbes, Descartes, Locke and Newton.Linearity, as typified by the laws of motion, is correlated with order, predictability, linked causes and effects, and knowable universal laws that allow desirable results to be obtained by application of the requisite inputs to a system.The constituent parts of a system give useful indications of the mode of behaviour of the whole.Fundamentally, linear processes are deterministic, mechanistic and finite, as opposed to being evolutionary and open-ended.Consequently, they respond well to hierarchical management structures and to reductionist, rather than integrative, methods of analysis.In time, linear thinking spread beyond the original scientific discoveries to embrace practically all facets of life.The success of the industrial revolution, in particular, engendered a belief that most problems could be resolved by the positivist application of reason to empirical observations.Following that logic, Smith and Ricardo claimed to have captured the laws of economics, and Marx enunciated his 'immutable' and deterministic laws of capitalist development.More recently, using a similar logic, Bell (1965) predicted an end to ideology while Fukuyama
Source: Progress in Development Studies
Authors: Samir Rihani, Robert Geyer
Institution: University of Liverpool
Language: English
Subfield: Computational Theory and Mathematics
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2043374982