Modelling the paradigm

This is a very brief overview of some of the work we are doing on this topic. For more detail and some background information, see D. Rousseau's paper "Challenging the Paradigm Systematically: A New and Generic Approach to Classifying Anomalous Phenomena" in the April 2002 issue of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research.

We have argued that anomalies provide a useful means for extending the competence of science, as they point out the places where current scientific models fail. In fact, we define anomalous phenomena as those phenomena that significantly challenge our world-view. In order to compare the data with the paradigm in a systematic way, we need to classify each anomaly in terms of the mainstream theory it challenges.

To assist this process, we have developed a high-level systems model of the paradigm. The model broadly follows the reductionist scheme, nominating four hierarchical classes of theories, each containing various theoretical concepts, models and functional processes with diverse interactions and relationships, as shown below. This model will be further developed using the techniques from systems engineering, functional analysis and control system design, incorporating psychological theories and philosophical inspection.