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Thomas Kuhn, Born July 18, 1922 - Died June 17, 1996
Short Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tasVTgZc9Gw -
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Teaching Gen Ed Science
After earning his Doctorate in 1949 in physics, Kuhn taught a science class at Harvard for the Gen Ed Science curriculum. It was more of a history of science class, and gave Kuhn opportunities to study historical texts. After his studies into the history of science, he was given an assistant professorship in the history of science at Berkeley, in the philosophy department, and led to his publishing of his first book, The Copernican Revolution, in 1957. -
The Copernican Revolution
The Copernican Revolution was the first book written and published by Thomas Kuhn. Kuhn focused on the Copernican Revolution and how it effected the way people thought about their place in the universe. He also discusses the ancient Greek concept of the universe and then how Copernicus split from the more widely accepted thoughts and ideas of astronomy. -
Professor at Berkeley
After his time in the assistant professorship position, Kuhn became a full professor at Berkeley. His time working in the philosophy department helped to develop his interest in the philosophy of science. He actually had discussed with a colleague, Paul Feyerabend, a draft of his later published work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Kuhn's second book, was his most controversial. This book broke down how Scientific Revolutions happened and what needed to happen to cause them. In his book, Kuhn believed "that the development of science is driven, in normal periods of science, by adherence to what Kuhn called a 'paradigm'." (Bird) He also believed that a "crisis" had to happen to shift from the accepted paradigms that couldn't provide answers to new problems. -
International Colloquium
In 1965, after leaving Berkeley to teach at Princeton, Kuhn attended the I.C. at Bedford College in London. He was supposed to debate his view points against those held by other philosophers of science, like Karl Popper. Throughout the debate, which was chaired by Popper, the discussion helped to show how significant Kuhn's approach was. -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Part 2
In 1970, Kuhn released a second edition of his work, Structure, that included a post script that he had hoped would better clarify his 'paradigm'. Also that year, his use of paradigm had come under criticism, which is one reason he added the post script. "Kuhn felt that critics had failed to appreciate the emphasis he placed upon the idea of a paradigm as an exemplar or model of puzzle-solving." (Bird)
