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Birth
Thomas Samuel Kuhn was born on July 18, 1922 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Samuel L. Kuhn, an industrial engineer, and Minette Stroock Kuhn, both Jewish. -
Graduate
He received his Ph.D in the history of science at Harvard University. -
Professor Kuhn
He started teaching the philosophy of science at Harvard University. -
Honorary Fellow
Kuhn was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 1954. -
New School, Same Job
He started teaching the philosophy of science at University of California at Berkeley. -
The Copernican Revolution
He studied the development of the heliocentric theory of the solar system during the Renaissance. -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
He argued that scientific research and thought are defined by “paradigms,” or conceptual world-views, that consist of formal theories, classic experiments, and trusted methods. Scientists typically accept a prevailing paradigm and try to extend its scope by refining theories, explaining puzzling data, and establishing more precise measures of standards and phenomena. (Cont.) -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
(Cont.) Eventually, however, their efforts may generate insoluble theoretical problems or experimental anomalies that expose a paradigm’s inadequacies or contradict it altogether. This accumulation of difficulties triggers a crisis that can only be resolved by an intellectual revolution that replaces an old paradigm with a new one. -
Video
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Change-Up
He started teaching the philosophy of science at Princeton University. -
Last Lecture
He started teaching the philosophy of science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. -
Medal
In 1982, he was awarded the George Sarton Medal by the History of Science Society. -
Devastating Diagnosis
In 1994 Kuhn was diagnosed with lung cancer. -
Death
He died on June 17, 1996 in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the age of 73.