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Thomas Kuhn Birth
Thomas Kuhn was born on 18 July 1922 in Cincinnati, Ohio with his parents Samuel and Minette Kuhn. His father was a hydraulic engineer and mother was a liberally educated person from an affluent family. (Marcum). -
Thomas Kuhn Begins Fellowship at Harvard
After graduating from Harvard with a bachelor’s and then master’s degree in physics, Kuhn realized he desired to be a philosopher of science and did so through history of science. He sought the appointment of fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows which allowed him to research and read vast amounts in the humanities and science beginning his path in the philosophy of science (Marcum). -
Thomas Kuhn's First Book "The Copernican Revolution"
Thomas Kuhn released his first book “The Copernican Revolution” which discussed the heliocentric theory of Copernicus and the evolution of ideas through a true shift in understanding from the previously understood Greek cosmology that was largely based on religious ideas. -
Kuhn Becomes Full Professor at University of California Berkley
Kuhn originally moved to California in 1956 to take up a post in history of science, but in the philosophy department. While working at University of California Berkley, colleagues introduced him to the works of famous philosophers such as Wittgenstein and Paul Feyerabend. Kuhn actually discussed a draft of his most notable work “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” with Feyerabend. During his time at Berkley, Kuhn was able to develop his interests in philosophy of science (Bird, 2018). -
Thomas Kuhn "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" Publication
The most impressive publication by Thomas Kuhn was “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” where he described that in normal periods of science the development is driven by a “paradigm”. Eventually there is “crisis”, where an old paradigm loses credibility, last we have “scientific revolution” where a new paradigm takes place of the previous. This led to his theory on incommensurability, meaning that between paradigms there is no common measure for assessing scientific theories (Bird, 2018). -
Thomas Kuhn Death
Thomas Kuhn passed away in Cambridge, Massachusetts on 17 June 1996 after suffering from cancer for two years.
