Mind-set

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A mind-set is a set of assumptions that limit and govern thinking.

An alternative term, paradigm, was popular in the 1960s to 1980s. However, it was abandoned as unclear in the 1990s. Even its creator Thomas Kuhn stopped using it. Today it is mostly abused in business philosophy and management theories, which are propaganda in most cases.

The much more specific and useful idea of the mind-set is today used in three distinct circles, with very similar meanings:

  • Philosophy of science where the alternative terms exemplar (Kuhn's replacement for paradigm) and episteme (early Michel Foucault) and discourse (later Michel Foucault) are also used to mean a generalized or ubiquitous mind-set shared by a whole generation.