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Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Kuhn was an American philosopher of science who introduced the phrase paradigm shift and challenged the established view of scientific progress with his book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions". -
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Graduation
in 1943, Thomas Kuhn graduated from Harvard. After that, he spent the remainder of the last two years of World War 2 conducting research related to radar at Harvard and then in Europe. He earned his master’s degree in physics in 1946, and his doctorate in physics in 1949. -
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Harvard
Kuhn taught a class in science for undergraduates in the humanities, as part of the General Education in Science curriculum at Harvard. This course was centered on historical case studies, and this was Kuhn’s first opportunity to study ancient scientific texts in detail. His initial reading of the scientific work of Aristotle was a formative experience for him. In 1957, he published his first book, "The Copernican Revolution". -
University of California at Berkeley
Kuhn took up a post in the history of science in the philosophy department at the University of California at Berkeley. 1961, Kuhn became a professor. This position enabled him to further develop his interest in the philosophy of science -
"The Structure of Scientific Revolutions."
Kuhn published "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." The development of science is driven, in normal periods of science called a paradigm. The functions of a paradigm are to supply puzzles for scientists to solve and to provide the tools for their solution. A crisis in science arises when confidence is lost in the ability of the paradigm to address particularly worrying puzzles called anomalies. -
Princeton University
Kuhn left Berkeley to take up the position of Professor of Philosophy and History of Science at Princeton University. -
International Colloquium in the Philosophy of Science
The International Colloquium in the Philosophy of Science was held at Bedford College, London, in 1965. The key events of the Colloquium were intended to be a debate between Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend. Feyerabend became ill and unable to attend. John Watkins took Feyerabend’s place in a session that was chaired by Karl Popper. The ensuing discussion compared and contrasted the viewpoints of Kuhn and Popper and thereby helped illuminate the significance of Kuhn’s approach. -
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Late Life
In 1970, the second edition of "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" was published. In this edition was a postscript in which Kuhn clarified the paradigm. In 1977, "The Essential Tension" was published. This was a collection of Kuhn's essays on the philosophy and history of science. Kuhn released "Black-body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity" in 1978. This book focused on the history of quantum mechanics. He spent the 1980s and 90s on topics in both the history and philosophy of science.
