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Birth
Thomas Kuhn was born on 1922 July 18, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father, Samuel Louis Kuhn, was a Cincinnati-born industrial engineer and investment consultant. A graduate of Harvard and MIT, he had fought in World War 1. -
Earliest Accomplishments
Kuhn graduated from Harvard summa cum laude in 1943. Earned his master's degree in physics in 1946, and his doctorate in 1949. Elected to the prestigious Society of Fellows at Harvard along with another, W.V. Quine. -
Influential Philosopher
Thomas Kuhn is arguably the most influential philosopher of the twentieth century. Kuhn's book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (published in 1962) introduced realistic humanism into the core of science. One of the most cited academic works, forever changed how the philosophy of science is studied. -
Paradigm Shift
Kuhn argues that science does not evolve through truth, rather it can be influenced by a scientist's race, social class, religious beliefs, and political views. Paradigm shifts occur when current theories can’t explain some phenomenon, and someone proposes a new theory. An example of a paradigm shift can be how we once thought the world was flat, though experiments we determined it was a sphere. -
Death
Thomas Kuhn died from lung cancer in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He had been suffering from throat and lung cancer for two years. He is survived by his three children Sarah, Elizabeth, and Nathaniel.