Paradigm shifts

[Tilia]

Does anyone have any good examples of paradigm shifts in the social sciences or arts? I definitely think in a too scientific way to find any good ones...

[Abu]

How about Apartheid? That was a big shift.

Or in more recent years, with the US thinking that most middle easterns are a threat to national security.

[SharkSpider]

Well, as far as arts goes, every new movement that gets accepted is like a paradigm shift.

Initially, realism in art was seen as an abomination, because it would depict close objects as being bigger than objects that are far away. Plato, in fact, wrote against realism on several occasions, claiming that it was a lie and immoral. Then, when perspective was used, the use of shadows was seen as an abomination. The first paintings to depict shadows on humans were seen as disgusting, with people covered in mottled skin. This is because human skin was shaded as it is seen, and the thought of having leaves from trees that were not painted in the painting covering skin was not present in art. Then, when the use of pure realism became accepted, any deviations, such as impressionism, were met with harsh criticism. In present day, art that resembles past art is often seen as old and worthless, and in general, modern day art is seriously libertarian and left wing, and innovation is often prized over quality. That being said, the first urinal was put in to an art gallery almost 100 years ago, so that type of protest art is getting old too.

In music, IMO things have taken a turn for the worse, with the music video now being the means of choice to convey as much scantily clad females as possible, which is a shift from older songs, with only suggestive voices and no full-nude photography in saunas to back it up. If you want to look at the shift from rock to metal as the music far off mainstream, that's a good shift as well, considering that the Beatles were at one point as hardcore as the guitar solos got, and the use of gain in amplifiers hadn't been explored. If you want to look at mainstream music, you look at rock and pop, whereas in the 20's you'd be looking at jazz and swing music. Major paradigm shifts in this area, that happen all of the time.

As far as social sciences, usually in history, revisionists and post revisionists attempt to shift paradigms with their writings. The cold war, until recently, had been viewed in North America as purely the Soviet's fault. Now, in History, we discuss how both sides were responsible. Paradigm ****s all over the board here. I didn't take Geo so I really don't know much about that, but you could talk about literature shifts for English, namely the shift from Greek plays (Pretty much the beginning) to plays that use actors, and you could talk about major changes all the way down the line to Shakespeare, poetry, and the invention of the novel. What you want to look for is something new that was created by some writers or poets, that became commonplace or sensational.

[Tilia]

[quote name='Aboo' post='27488' date='Nov 1 2008, 01:29 AM']Or in more recent years, with the US thinking that most middle easterns are a threat to national security.[/quote]

That might be something. Thanks!