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Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Kuhn was born on July 18th 1922 and passed away June 17th 1996. Best known for introducing the world to the term paradigm shift. -
Paradigm shift
In 1962 Thomas Kuhn wrote the book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. A paradigm shift is a significant change in how we view a scientific theory. Perhaps the most well known paradigm shift is the change from the geocentric to heliocentric solar system model. -
Linear science
Thomas Kuhn would argue that science is not linear. I would interpret this as he felt as if multiple people needed to test theories to be true. If you test something just once and it passes, it does not automatically mean it is true. It's important to have as much data as possible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOGZEZ96ynI&ab_channel=LeidenUniversity-FacultyofHumanities -
Kuhn "attacks" linear science
"Thomas Kuhn attacks “development-by-accumulation” views of science, which hold that science progresses linearly by accumulating theory-independent facts. Kuhn looked at the history of science and argued that science does not simply progress by stages based upon neutral observations" McLeod, Saul. "Kuhn's Paradigm Shift Theory." Simply Psychology, Simply Psychology, 31 July 2023, www.simplypsychology.org/kuhn-paradigm.html. -
Dropping the paradigm shift.
Years after his book came out, he started to change how he thought and how things worked. Not only did paradigm shifts change, how you would describe them did, too. He felt it was important to change how you would talk about science. Not only that, but he also felt you should change how you categorize it as well. He did this to explain how sometimes scientific theories change drastically as opposed to others that don't. -
Thomas Khun's passing
In the year 1994 Thomas was unfortunately diagnosed with lung cancer. He would live another two years and pass away in the year 1996 at the age of 73.