How and Why to Model the Complexity of Thought Systems

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to sketch out an epistemological modelModelfor empirical research on paradigmsParadigm, i.e., the principles organizing a thought systemThought system. This modelModelis a theoretical and methodological device for examining questions such as how scientists think the epistemic, socialSocial, political and ethical dimensions of their own scientific practicesScientific practice; how a paradigmParadigm, or way of thinking, determines a mode of problematizationProblematization, that is, the horizon of possible research questions, conceivable ideas, acceptable problems, imaginable concepts, and how a science or a scientific discipline is able to observe, problematize and criticize their own paradigmsParadigm. To address these questions, the modelModelproposes a qualitative and quantitative study of scientific beliefsScientific beliefs. A beliefBeliefis a form of social cognitionSocial cognitionproduced through socialSocialpractices and discoursesDiscourses. The analysis of languageLanguageand social communicationSocial communicationamong scientists provides a way of understanding scientific beliefsScientific beliefs. Moreover, beliefsBeliefare not discrete and isolated entities. On the contrary, they implicate each other forming networks or assemblages of heterogeneous beliefsBelief. A system of scientific beliefsSystem of scientific beliefsis a complex structureStructureconstituted by different types of clusters of beliefsClusters of beliefscalled attitudes. Such a systemSystemis a kind of socialSocialrepresentationRepresentation, that is, a mental modelMental modelsocially produced and shared by members of a group which structures the way they perceive, question, understand and objectivize reality. ModelingModel(s)/modelinga systemSystemof scientific beliefsSystem of scientific beliefsis a kind of metacognitiveMetacognitionstrategyMetacognitive strategy, a way of producing a reflexive, self-critical meta-point of viewMeta-point of viewfor scientific research.