-
The Birth of Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Kuhn was born on July 18, 1922 in Cincinnati, Ohio. His parents often called him Tom.
His father (Samuel Kuhn) was also born in Cincinnati. He was an industrial engineer graduated from Harvard and MIT. On top of all of that he was a WW1 Veteran.
His Mother (Minette Kuhn) was also a well educated woman who graduated from Vassar College. She and her husband were very active in left-winged politics as she spent a majority of her education as a freelance editor. -
Period: to
Early Childhood! [K-12]
In this duration of time Thomas Kuhn spent his younger years at Lincoln School which was a private as well as a progressive school located in Manhattan. This is where he was able to become introduced into independent thinking. But due to the school focusing on more independent thinking than education, at age 7 he was still unable to read or write.
His family soon moved him North to the small town of Croton-on-Hudson. He once again attended a private progressive school (Hessian Hills School). -
Period: to
Early Childhood (Continued)
After moving to Croton-On-Hudson, Kuhn began to show a passion of interest for mathematics. It was also here that he hoped to join the Leftist American Student Union with the influence of radical teachers. But he soon realized it was not for him due to the organization making its members swear an oath to never fight for the US. He then left in 1937. He spent the conclusion of his schooling in boarding schools in Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
Having straight A's he was then admitted to Harvard. -
Period: to
Harvard years
After being accepted to his father's alma mater, Thomas Kuhn (18) experienced a very positive and improving factor in his social life. it was as if he felt like he belonged with his previous years in education being spent moving around all the time. He was finally home.
As an early student, he struggled with physics as he scored a C on his first exam. During the beginnings of WW2 Kuhn decided to speed up his degree and attended classes in the summer achieving a BS in Physics Summa Cum Laude -
War
In the summer of 1943, Kuhn joined in the war effort, still based in Harvard. His job would entitle the responsibilities of devising countermeasures against enemy radar. After his hard efforts, he was called to work in a laboratory in the United Kingdom. -
Period: to
Life after the war
Trying to make sense of things after the war, Kuhn received both his masters degree(1946) and Doctorate (1949)
He was invited to become and course instructor at Harvard in 1947. This is where an idea popped into head during an attempt to make sense of the laws of motion set by Aristotle. But he realized that he couldn't quite understand because, quite literally, he was too well educated in physics.
He had to put himself in the shoes of Aristotle to fully comprehend any ideology he had. -
Period: to
Life after War (continued)
In 1958, Kuhn was given the position at University of California Berkley as assistant professor in philosophy and history departments. He then picked up a position as an Associate professor
in 1961 he was promoted to become a full fledged professor of the History of science at Berkeley. -
Paradigm shift illustration
Contribution to science:
Thomas Kuhn is seen as one of if not the most influential philosopher of science in the 20th century. His ideas although largely critiqued, birthed a new style of philosophy of science that brought it in more relation to the history of science. -
The Paradigm Shift
The thought and ideology of the Paradigm shift had been in his mind for many years at this point. it all started when he began to question how an intelligent man such as Aristotle could have come up with such absurd ideas about motion. He concluded that the reasoning behind this was that the framework and basis in which he founded his work was much different from that we use today or even as time progressed.
This change in framework was then labeled as the paradigm shift. -
Period: to
After a revolution
After the creation of his Paradigm shift, Kuhn moved to Princeton as the Professor of Philosophy and History of Science.
in 1979 he became the professor of Philosophy at MIT.
He then met a woman a remarried in 1981 to a Jehane Barton Burns whomst he spent the remaining years of his life with.
He retired from MIT in 1991 at 69 which he spent the next 4 years of his life living comfortably until age 71 where he had to battle throat/lung cancer. He ultimately lost and passed on June 17 1996 -
Sources
"Thomas Kuhn." Famous Scientists. famousscientists.org. 12 Jun. 2017. Web. 8/29/2020
<www.famousscientists.org/thomas-kuhn/>. Bird, Alexander. “Thomas Kuhn.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 31 Oct. 2018, plato.stanford.edu/entries/thomas-kuhn/.
