Ma`rifat Falsafi

In facing paradigm, some of the most basic and most important methodological questions with close relations to epistemology are the following: is research, whether in the realm of natural or human sciences, or even in epistemological issues, possible without the realization of paradigms and subjective assumptions? What role do paradigms play in research, methodology, knowledge and access to reality? To get the answer to such questions, we must first see what the paradigm is and whence does it originate. The term “paradigm” which has been recently considered in the philosophy of science and extended into other realms of human knowledge is full of ambiguity. One of those ambiguities relates to whether it is intended to mean a mental structure, a basis, or a model. Since this issue has been extensively penetrated into deep, Influential, and fundamental realms such as the philosophy of religion, philosophy, epistemology and methodology, it is inevitable to conduct researches about it. Among the most important achievements of this study is the fact that through a semantic analysis of this term and stating its origin, its ambiguity is removed and one can judge about the possibility of research with or without a paradigm.