A paradigm is similar to a conceptual scheme or web of ideas.
The concept of a concept includes the relationships of ideas around a central marker in the mind, such as a word or sound or feeling.
The word "paradigm" infers the totality of one's world-view or belief system concerning reality and existence.
A paradigm shift can be subtle and slow, though, with each new experience, it can be assumed that an individual mind's paradigm will be altered, however subtly, to some degree.
A fast and sudden paradigm shift upon coming to a new belief that has an effect on a number of foundational beliefs can be likened to an epiphany.
A paradigm shift may occur concerning the true nature of a friend or of one's country or of science and physics.
One may have an emotional paradigm shift upon some realization concerning how to deal with one's past experiences or concerning the way in which cognitive process affect one's outlook.
Becoming an optimist after being a pessimist, learning to distance one's emotions from negative circumanstances are both examples of possible paradigm shifts.
A subtle and slight paradigm shift, to some degree, probably occurs in all of us at all times.
At other times, an event can cause us to change our worldview quickly.
A death or a tragedy. Winning the lottery. Discovering something that affects everything else in one's mental repository.
Everyone has a paradigm.
It is like a lense through which we look every moment we are aware.
The lens filters and changes our perception of this or that thought or representation and brings it within our conceptual schema.
Paradigm infects and affects all other thoughts about the world that an individual has.
Paradigms are dynamic and can change gradually or suddenly.
A sudden paradigm shift can be referred to as an epipahny.
Paradigms between two people will never completely overlap as they would have to have had the same experiences and belief system and this is only possible for two beings that are identical through history of space and time- which would mean that the two beings are not different in any way.
It cannot be said what lies outside one's paradigm until that thing, idea, or concept has been discovered.
Paradigms expand with education and knowledge about reality.
Common paradigms include the scientific realist paradigm, a religious paradigm of one view or another, an idealist or materialist paradigm.
Individuals can have multiple overlapping paradigms or entertain non-overlapping paradigms for different periods or functions in their experience.
For example, a scientific paradigm may be the paradigm of choice for a scientifically-minded monk but a religious paradigm may suite him or her better when praying in solitary quarters.
