Thomas Kuhn is born

By shiphrah20

  • Thomas Kuhn is born

    Thomas Kuhn was born July 18, 1922 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Samuel L. and Minette Kuhn. His father was a hydraulic engineer and later served in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War I. Kuhn was the oldest of two siblings: his brother Roger was born several years later.

  • Kuhn starts his academic career

    Kuhn graduated from Harvard summa cum laude in 1943. Shortly after, he earned his master's degree in physics in 1946.
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    Kuhn gets married

    Kuhn married Kathryn Muhs in 1948. They had two daughters and a son, and later divorced in 1978.

  • Kuhn earns his Doctorate

    Kuhn graduated from Harvard with his doctorate in 1959. His thesis was 'The Cohesive Energy of Monovalent Metals as a Function of the Atomic Quantum Defects.'

  • Kuhn writes his first book

    Kuhn wrote 'The Copernican Revolution' in which he criticized Copernicus' Heliocentric theory proposal and its impact on society during the Renaissance. He believed that Copernicus' model was preferred because it was more pleasing to its audience. (Longino, 2019)

  • The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

    Thomas Kuhn first used the term "paradigm" or "paradigm shift" in his 1962 book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" to describe how societal changes distort how scientific theories are perceived. This book sparked a paradigm shift of its own and contributed to the development of some top-notch scientific hypotheses.
    (Longino, 2019)
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    Kuhn begins teaching Philosophy of Science at Princeton

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    Kuhn begins teaching Philosophy of Science at MIT

  • Kuhn remarries

    At 59, Kuhn remarried Jehane Barton Burns.

  • Thomas Kuhn dies

    Kuhn passed away on June 17, 1996, in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the age of 73 after fighting throat and lung cancer for two years.
    (Stewart, 2023)

  • Sources

    Stewart, D. (2023a) Home, Famous Scientists. Available at: https://www.famousscientists.org/thomas-kuhn/ (Accessed: 10 September 2023).
    Longino, H. (2019) The social dimensions of scientific knowledge, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-knowledge-social/ (Accessed: 10 September 2023).