ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with some critical thoughts on the applicability of Thomas S. Kuhn’s theory to medicine and medical ethics. It presents a more refined model of the term “paradigm” and its development. The sign of a highly developed science is the predominance of one single paradigm; highly developed science is monoparadigmatic. Masterman’s modifications on Kuhn’s “paradigm” open up new possibilities not only for a more concise definition of Kuhn’s term, but also for its modified application to fields of science that exhibit several co-existing and co-developing paradigms rather than the one paradigm of a monoparadigmatic normal science. Medical ethics in its largest context is too plural, too heterogeneous to be characterized by a single paradigm. The example of ethics teaching in medical school and other fields related to health care illustrates the heterogeneous and even contradictory situation surrounding the question of a general paradigm shift in medical ethics in Germany.
