Thomas S. Kuhn (July 18, 1922 - June 17, 1996)

Birth

Jul 18, 1922

Thomas Samuel Kuhn was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on July 18, 1922. His father was Samuel Louis Kuhn, who was an industrial engineer and served in World War I. Thomas's mother was Minette Kuhn, she was a graduate of Vassar College and heir to a wealthy New York family.

Education

1949

After obtaining a bachelor's degree in 1943 and a master's degree in 1946, both in the world of physics from Harvard University, Kuhn went on to study physics even further. Of course, he would receive his Ph.D. from none other than, Harvard University. Kuhn was guided to learn more about the history of science when asked to teach a science for humanities course. Thus, turning out to be a life, and career-changing road.

UC Berkeley

1956

While teaching at Harvard, he became perplexed by Aristotle's work. This led to him focusing on the history of science. He stayed at Harvard until 1956, and then, after failing to get tenure, he went to UC Berkeley where he wrote Structure. He also was promoted to a university professor of physics at Berkeley.

Professor Kuhn

1961

In 1961, Thomas Kuhn was promoted to a university of physics professor at UC Berkeley. Kuhn was not particularly happy about this promotion since he was really trying to go for being a university professor of philosophy of science.

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

1962

In 1962, Kuhn publishes his book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. The central idea of this book is that scientific development is influenced by the actions of individuals during normal periods of scientific inquiry. Kuhn's book goes on to describe the five steps in the cycle for scientific change. He also goes on to challenge the term "normal science."

Professor of Philosophy

1964

In 1964, Kuhn left Berkeley to become a philosophy professor at Princeton University, and in the following year, an International Colloquium in the Philosophy of Science was held at Bedford College, London. Kuhn attended the event in regards to compare and contrast the viewpoints of his own and Popper's. This helped promote Kuhn's viewpoint among other philosophers.

Death

Jun 17, 1996

After Kuhn became a philosophy professor at MIT in 1983, he continued to work on different topics of history and philosophy of science topics throughout the 1980s-1990s. At the time of his death in 1996, he was working on a second book that dealt with developmental psychology.