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Kuhn's Education
Thomas Kuhn was very accomplished in his education. He attended Harvard University where he got a Bachelors of Science, Masters of Science and a PhD in physics. It was at Harvard that Kuhn became interested in the history and philosophy of science. His time at Harvard was very important in shaping his views and ideas that later lead to his breakthroughs in the philosophy of science. -
The Copernican Revolution
In Thomas Kuhn's first book, the Copernican Revolution, he talks about the shift away from the belief in the Ptolemaic system to the belief in the Keplerian system. The Ptolemaic system was the theory that the Earth was at the center of the universe instead of the sun which is what the Keplerian system proposed. This book was not as well known as his other, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, but it was an important step towards his later theories. -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
In Thomas Kuhn's second book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" he presents the ideas of paradigms and the paradigm shift. This was a major breakthrough in the philosophy of science and brought about a whole new understanding of theories and ideas. The idea of paradigms put some structure into the understanding of how science is conducted and how it works. He believed that science must go through major revolutions to really progress into a paradigm shift. -
Post Paradigm Shift
Kuhn's work brought on a new way of thinking in not only the scientific field but almost everywhere else. It is now a common term that describes the changes in many fields from economics to warfare. For example, Kuhn is revered in social science and has been credited with providing the foundation for the post-Mertonian sociology of scientific knowledge. Many ideas in the philosophy of science were influenced by Kuhn and because of that he is a very important figure in scientific history.
