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The Birth of Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Kuhn was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. On July 18th, 1922. He was known as an American Historian of Science and noted for his writing The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhn questioned the traditional conception of scientific progress with his paradigm theory. Kuhn was known to question the typical scientific approach. He suggested that the paradigm would determine the kinds of experiments scientists would perform, the questions they asked, and what they considered to be important. -
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Academics/Harvard
Kuhn graduated from Harvard, Summa cum laude in 1943 with his Bachelor's degree. He then continued his education at Harvard and received his Master's degree in Physics in 1946. Once Kuhn graduated he began a teaching career at Harvard in 1951. He stayed there until 1956. Kuhn taught a class for undergrads as part of the general education of science curriculum. The course was centered around historic case studies, and this was Kuhn's first chance to study historical scientific texts in detail. -
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Career/Writing
In 1957, Kuhn published his first book, The Copernican Revolution.
In 1961, Kuhn left Harvard to become a full professor at the University of California at Berkely.
In 1962 his writing The Structure of Scientific Revolution was published in the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science. According to Kuhn this writing was first recognized by social scientists, although it later would catch the attention of his intended audience, the philisophical community. -
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Career/Writing/Death
In 1964 Kuhn took the position of professor of Philosophy and History of Science at Princeton.
1965 The second edition of the Structure of Scientific Revolutions was published. This included an important post-script where Kuhn clarified his explanation of the paradigm.
In 1983 Kuhn took the position of Laurence S. Rockefeller professor of philosophy at MIT.
Kuhn died on June 17th, 1996. At the time of his death he was working on a second philisophical monograph.