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Birth
Kuhn was born in Cincinnati, Ohio to Samuel Kuhn and Minette Kuhn. -
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PhD and teaching.
Thomas Kuhn obtained PhD degree in Physics from Harvard College. He taught history of science from 1948 to 1956 at Harvard College and later moved to University of California, Berkeley to teach philosophy and history. -
The Copernican Revolution
‘The Copernican Revolution’, published in 1957, analyses the 16th century Scientific Revolution and the Ptolemaic understanding of the solar system. This went on to become a best-seller. -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Kuhns' book established the "postmodern" image of science as such, and even of all intellectual formations. In a completely non-positivist spirit he described not so much its linear development as its "jump" transformations. Science, firmly embedded by Kuhn in a socio-cultural context, becomes an institution with its own strategy. -
Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity
His second historical monograph on the early history of quantum mechanics, ‘Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity’ was published, in 1988. -
Death
At the time of his death in 1996, he was working on his second philosophical monograph that dealt with, ‘evolutionary conception of scientific change’ and ‘concept acquisition in developmental psychology’. -
Thomas Kuhn Paradigm Shift Award
In honor of his legacy, the "Thomas Kuhn Paradigm Shift Award" is awarded by the American Chemical Society to speakers who present original views that are at odds with mainstream scientific understanding.