Is this meaning for the word Paradigm correct?

Question

I have seen the word paradigm described as:

The way any individual perceives, understands, and interprets the surrounding world

and it doesn't sit right with me. My understanding was that paradigm was to mean "the way things are modelled globally", rather than on an personal basis. I have looked up the word in a few online dictionaries and on Wikipedia which seems to suggest that it's:

A typical example or pattern of something; a pattern or model

which is not too dissimilar from the meaning that I have been told, but I think subtly different in the direction that it seems to be looking. I.e the common usage suggests that the model is derived by others and given to the individual as a way of explaining a complex issue, where as the way I have been told it is the individuals own method of understanding.

Is the reading I have recently been given significantly incorrect and if it is what is a better word to describe that?

Answer 1

I think there are two ways to use the word: subjectively and objectively.

Your first definition is using it in a subjective context. It's describing a personal paradigm. Two different people can view the world using two (or more!) different paradigms.

Your second definition is using it in an objective context. It's describing a global paradigm. This describes a system from the outside. However, it should be noted that even with this definition, you can describe a system using multiple paradigms.

Maybe subjective and objective aren't exactly the right words: maybe local and global? Internal and external? The point is that you can have paradigms of both sorts, and that's not a contradiction.

Compare it to the noun model, which can have similar internal/external uses. You can have a mental model that says tomatoes don't taste good, and I can have a mental model that says tomatoes are delicious. We can also talk about a model that describes tomatoes as fruits, or another model that describes them as vegetables. You can have multiple models at different levels, just like you can have multiple paradigms at different levels.