h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

More paradigm shifts in science can be seen in alchemy vs chemistry. And physics, phlogiston and ether anyone? Medicine is rife with it, and we might observe one shift these days as it turns out that medications and anaestesy work very different in females and males, which has not been taking into account at all, and it'll take time for this knowledge to seep through to medical practicioners.
Interestingly enough alchemical concepts, while for the most part useless to chemists are still attractive to wide sectors of the public. With the anti-science sentiment, which is more widely spread than generally acknowledged, I wonder if we mightn't experience reverse paradigm shifts in the future.

*urr* forgot subject.

Actually, I have been attempting to write an entry on phlogiston for several months and not really gotten anywhere. The list of potential candidates for a paradigm shift are innumerable.

I think the understanding of paradigm shifts is an essential tool for the understanding of past generations of human beings. But as you said, once a paradigm shifts, the past paradigm and thought systems based thereon leave the collective conscience, and hence we get all that revisionist history, a lot of fruitless and acrimonious discussions about historical moral guilt, and historical novels patently incorrect (they have to be, or they'll never become bestsellers).
Thanks for reminding me!