-
Birth
He was born 'Thomas Samuel Kuhn' in Cincinnati-Ohio on the 18th of July 1922, to parents, Samuel L. Kuhn and Minette Stroock Kuhn. His father was both a Graduate from Harvard and MIT. -
Period: to
Education
Kuhn graduated from the Taft School in Watertown, CT in 1940, where he gained interest in Mathematics and Physics. He then headed to Harvard like his dad and earned a Bachelors in Physics in 1943. Then furthered to earn a Masters and Ph.D in 1946 and 1949 respectively, under the supervision of John Van Vleck. -
Period: to
Professional Life
As a Junior fellow, he switched from Physics to the philosophy of science. Later, it was suggested by the Harvard university president, James Conan that he starts teaching the History of Science, a job he did for seven years. He later left Harvard and taught at the University of California, Berkeley and was named Professor of the History of Science. He also taught history of science at Princeton University and his last Job was at MIT where he taught Philosophy. -
Period: to
Honors
Thomas Kuhn was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 1954 and was awarded the George Sarton Medal in 1982 by the History of Science Society. -
Structure of Scientific Revolution
While at Berkeley, Kuhn published his most influential work in 1962 “The structure of scientific revolutions’ where he writes about the history of science. In this work, Kuhn challenges the view of the prevailing "normal science”, which was based on development-by-accumulation of accepted facts and theory by arguing that scientific research and thoughts are defined by “paradigms,” or by conceptual world-views, which comprise of classic experiments, formal theories, and trusted methods. -
Kuhn's Paradigm Shift
In 1962, Kuhn was said to have a best-seller in his hands, and everyone wanted a copy of it(Lesson 3).The paradigm shift is a fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline. Kuhn argued that "science does not progress via a linear accumulation of new knowledge, but undergoes periodic revolutions, also called paradigm shifts" (Kuhn T. S. 1962). Kuhn explained it in four different phases. -
Sources
https://edge.apus.edu/portal/site/414686/tool/b10bac37-f9fc-4f8e-b04f-7ae0173d4dd9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kuhn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQPsc55zsXA Kuhn, T. S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962. ISBN 0-226-45808-3 -
YouTube Video
Attached is a YouTube video from Leiden University explaining Kuhn's four phases of science:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQPsc55zsXA -
Period: to
Kuhn's last days
In 1994 Kuhn was diagnosed with lung cancer and finally died in 1996 at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
