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The birth of Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Kuhn was born on July 18, 1922 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Received his BS, MS, and PhD in physics from Harvard University. Kuhn taught at Harvard, Barkley, and Princeton as a History and Philosophy of Science Professor. -
The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought
In this book Kuhn discusses the evolution of astronomy beginning with the Greeks development of cosmology and ending with a descriptive insight into Newtonian science. Kuhn ensures to thoroughly explain the heliocentric model and its evolution in the Copernican revolution. As this book was one of the first of Kuhn's publications, it provided insight into the ideas of scientific phases and expressed, in great detail, how one paradigm began to shift and revolutionize seemingly at the same time. -
Thomas Kuhn: Scientific Revolutions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQPsc55zsXA&list=PLPeStI124dee1ByfcDzRvPxKDNb0GQjmo&index=6 Gijsbers, Victor. "Chapter 2.2: Thomas Kuhn, scientific revolutions." YouTube, uploaded by Leiden University-Faculty of Humanities, 19 October 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQPsc55zsXA&list=PLPeStI124dee1ByfcDzRvPxKDNb0GQjmo&index=6. -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
This publication is the most well know of Kuhn's works and outlines his belief that science does not progress in linear accumulation of new knowledge, but instead goes through periodic revolutions or "paradigm shits." Kuhn theorized science existed in three phases; Pre-Science (pre-paradigm), Normal Science (Paradigm), and Revolutionary Science (Scientific Revolutions). Kuhn stated that at times a paradigm could undergo certain failures that would establish a "crisis" leading to a new paradigm. -
The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change
Fourteen articles, some previously published, that discuss the history of science across many vast entities. One is the like representation of Anglo-American analytics and European hermeneutist philosophy of science. Second, and most important, is Kuhn's belief that science is a group effort based on the meaning of a scientific community. On the outside these communities are irrational, but within them is the central developement of all hypotheses pertaining to the establishing of a paradigm. -
Works Citied
Kuhn, Thomas. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago UP, 1962.
Kuhn, Thomas. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd ed., Neurath, Chicago UP, 1970.
Kuhn, Thomas. The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought, Harvard UP, 1957.
Kuhn, Thomas. The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change, Chicago UP, 1977. -
The death of Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Kuhn died if lung cancer on June 17, 1996. He left behind a son and two daughters. I his lifetime Kuhn published various books and articles, but also coined another term, not previously discussed, "incommensurability." By definition the term meant not measurable and was used to explain how certain paradigms could not be commonly measured due to their vast differences.
