Hello, my name is Naila. I was born and raised in the United States. However, my ethnicity is half Guyanese and half Pakistani. I have lived in Queens, NY, for most of my life, but my family moved to Virginia when I was in high school. NYC has always felt like home to me, so as soon as I graduated high school, I moved back to NYC seven years ago. At first, I was studying computer science at Queens College, but I fell upon a rare opportunity to become a flight attendant for United Airlines. I worked as a flight attendant for about a year until the pandemic. Because of the pandemic, I was furloughed from my job as a flight attendant. I then decided I wanted to finish my degree, so I enrolled at NYCCT and got accepted to the nursing program. However, I soon realized that the health care field wasn’t for me, and I am now pursuing my degree in Professional & Technical Writing with a specialization in Biological Sciences. In my spare time, I enjoy writing, reading, and PC gaming. One of my current goals is to develop a strong portfolio throughout my academic career in Professional and Technical Writing.
Thomas Kuhn’s hypothesis regarding the major changes in the history of science has caught my attention. Kuhn’s paradigm shift refers to the replacement of one conceptual model with another one. When individuals come across a theory that has contradictions and anomalies, then the theory is thus flawed. As a result, people may shift to another concept, or in other words, paradigms. Hence, Kuhn’s term, a Paradigm shift. In this reading, Hairston states:
“He cites as classic examples the astronomers’ substitution of the Copernican model of the solar system for the Ptolemaic model and the development of Newtonian physics. Such shifts are usually disorderly and often controversial, and the period in which they occur is apt to be marked by insecurity and conflict within the discipline.”
I could further understand the paradigm shift theory with Kuhn’s example of astronomers’ past conflicts regarding the solar system models. The Ptolemy model was an “earth-centered” model where Ptolemy believed that earth was in the center and was being orbited by all other planets, stars, the sun, and the moon. However, when astronomers saw the flaws in this model, this resulted in a paradigm shift in which another theory was introduced. In this case, the Copernicus model was the next best concept where he believed that our solar system is “sun-centered.” However, there were some flaws in this theory, resulting in yet another paradigm shift. Therefore, new theories will always be introduced as long as unexplainable contradictions exist.
Reading about Kuhn’s paradigm shift was intriguing and got me thinking more about the scientific process and the infinite possibilities. Will there ever be an end to the paradigm shift? The thought of this can be quite overwhelming and existential. As a writer, I noticed Hairston organizes the structure of this passage by explaining Kuhn’s thesis and expanding from his idea. She expands on the theory of paradigm shifts by using Kuhn as her initial reference but then goes into a more detailed and deconstructed analysis of this theory.
