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Birth
Thomas Kuhn is born in Cincinnati Ohio. "Thomas Kuhn." Famous Scientists. famousscientists.org. 12 Jun. 2017. Web. 4/4/2021
<www.famousscientists.org/thomas-kuhn/>. -
Graduated Summa cum Laude Bachelors in Physics
He began to attend Harvard University in the fall of 1940. I needed to determine whether he wanted a degree in mathematics or physics and with some convincing from his father of a better future in physics he decided on the latter and began his college career studying physics. After earning a C on his first exam Kuhn was worried if he would have any future in the subject, since he had previously been a straight A student. (Continued in word document) -
Interest in Philosophy and The History of Science
During a fellowship in Kuhns junior year, he was asked to teach an undergraduate science class to humanities students. In his search for a case in history which could document Newton’s findings in mechanics, he came across Aristotle’s ideas and was astonished as how someone so brilliant could be so wrong. After digging further into Aristotle, he realized he wasn’t wrong, he just had different ideas and this would lead Kuhn to shift his focus from physics to philosophy and the history of science. -
Paradigm Shift
Though published in 1962, Kuhn’s ideas for his first book came from his thoughts he wrote as a monograph during his time as an undergraduate in the late 1940s. (Van Gelder, 1996) his book “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” was where he first introduced the world to the paradigm shift. This was undoubtedly the idea that makes Kuhn so well known and respected within science, history, and philosophy. -
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Later Years of Teaching Philosophy and the History of Science
In 1964, Kuhn left Berkeley and took a position at Princeton University as M. Taylor Pyne Professor of Philosophy and History of Science. He would continue to teach at Princeton and publish several essays (1977) regarding his philosophy and history of science under the title The Essential Tension which again was taken from one of Kuhn’s earliest essays. In 1983 he was named Laurence S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy at MIT ultimately retiring from this position in 1991, -
Death
On Jun 17, 1996, Thomas Kuhn succumbed to throat and lung cancer. He was less than one month shy of his 74th birthday. Kuhn left behind two daughters Sarah and Elizabeth, as well as a son Nathaniel from his first marriage and his second wife Jehane Barton Burns. "Thomas Kuhn." Famous Scientists. famousscientists.org. 12 Jun. 2017. Web. 4/4/2021
<www.famousscientists.org/thomas-kuhn/>.