How and why to model the complexity of thought systems

LEONARDO G. RODRÍGUEZ ZOYA

Applications of complexity theory in language and communication sciences

Springer-Verlag

Lugar: Suiza; Año: 2019; p. 43 - 73

The aim of this paper is to sketch out an epistemological model for empirical research on paradigms, i.e., the principles organizing a thought system. This model is a theoretical and methodological device for examining questions such as how scientists think the epistemic, social, political and ethical dimensions of their own scientific practices; how a paradigm, or way of thinking, determines a mode of problematization, 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 paradigms.To address these questions, the model proposes a qualitative and quantitative study of scientific beliefs. A belief is a form of social cognition produced through social practices and discourses. The analysis of language and social communication among scientists provides a way of understanding scientific beliefs. Moreover, beliefs are not discrete and isolated entities. On the contrary, they implicate each other forming networks or assemblages of heterogeneous beliefs. A system of scientific beliefs is a complex structure constituted by different types of clusters of beliefs called attitudes. Such a system is a kind of social representation, that is, a mental model socially produced and shared by members of a group which structures the way they perceive, question, understand and objectivize reality. Modeling a system of scientific beliefs is a kind of metacognitive strategy, a way of producing a reflexive, self-critical meta-point of view for scientific research.