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Birthday
"Thomas Samuel Kuhn was born in Cincinnati, Ohio 18 July 1922" (Marcum). -
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Harvard College
Attended in 1940 and "took a yearlong philosophy course" (Marcum). He studied big names such as Plato and Aristotle, and in various fields such as physics. In "1943, Kuhn graduated summa cum laude... with an S.B." (Marcum). -
The Lowell Lectures
"Kuhn outlined a conception of science in contrast to the traditional philosophy of science’s conception in which facts are slowly accumulated and stockpiled in textbooks" (Marcum). Kuhn introduced the idea that science can't solely be based on logic. According to Marcum, Kuhn "showed that logic is necessary but insufficient for justifying scientific knowledge." -
The Copernican Revolution
In this book Thomas Kuhn reanalyzed Copernican Revolution and stated that other scholars had missed the plurality of it (Marcum). Kuhn stated "that scientists have philosophical and even religious commitments, which are important for the justification of scientific knowledge" (Marcum). "Kuhn’s reconstruction of the Copernican revolution portrayed a radically different image of science than that of traditional philosophers of science" (Marcum). -
The Structure of The Scientific Revolution
Kuhn introduced a new way at looking at how science is conducted. Although the book was not popular at its inception, it soon gained popularity and became a best seller (Thomas Kuhn). In it Kuhn broke down science into four phases. "Phase one: Normal Science; Phase two: Model Crisis; Phase three: The Model Revolution; Phase four: Paradigm Change" (Thomas Kuhn). Watch this video on Scientific Revolutions by Then & Now -
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Structure
In these publications, Kuhn added what was seemingly missing before which was: "an understanding of how scientists function on a daily basis, when an impending revolution is not looming" (Marcum). In these papers Kuhn introduced "a shift from the subject (the product) to the verb (to produce)" (Marcum). Kuhn described the structure of science to occur as such: "pre-paradigm science → normal science → extraordinary science → new normal science" (Marcum). -
Death
Thomas Kuhn passed away in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Britannica). -
Works Cited
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Thomas S. Kuhn". Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 Jun. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-S-Kuhn. Marcum, James A. “Thomas S. Kuhn (1922-1996).” The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://iep.utm.edu/kuhn-ts/. "Thomas Kuhn" (2021). Scientific Revolutions [Class handout].Retrieved from American Public University System PHIL101 sakai.