ABSTRACT
Eventually the protective belt will allow for slight changes in the set of essential variables and their relationships to allow for paradigm evolution. But if too many tests of a paradigm in its practical applicability fail and the protective belt cannot accommodate their impact, then a revolutionary paradigm shift occurs. The case of theoretical physics showed that an overcome paradigm, e.g. Newtonian mechanics, still can survive as a narrow special case of the victorious new paradigm, e.g. quantum physics. In the social sciences a scientific revolution seems to be overdue since many years, compare. To distinguish between ideologies, which can seize the minds of large parts of a population influenced by ‘practical men’ and media, and paradigms, which are attempts to provide a systematic interpretation of the dynamics of an investigated scientific area, is extremely important. Paradigms feed ideologies, and, of course, the social force of an ideology will always lead to a feedback on paradigm evolution.
