The Paradigm Plague: Prevention, Cure, and Inoculation

Although it is debatable whether Kuhn's concept of paradigm formation and change applies to the social and behavioral sciences, it has been very widely used to justify new descriptions, methods, and theories in these fields. Such is the dominance of paradigm arguments that fragmentation into incommensurable theoretical positions and specialties threatens to further undermine the credibility of the human disciplines. Some recent proposals by Hassard (1988) for overcoming paradigm hermeticism are noted, and the results of an experiment in reflexive professional education are put forward as one way out of the hermit's cave.