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Birth
Thomas Kuhn was born on 18 July 1922 in Cincinatti, OH to Samuel and Minette Kuhn. -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and Prescience (2)
Prescience is the step taken prior to conducting research and analysis. This is the step that all science has fallen into at their conception. Prescience know and understand what a problem is, but lack the capabilities to solve the issue or make any scientific advances in the field. The prescience step is continuous, and works to provide an understanding that eventually leads to normal science. If there is continued debate on what the basis is for the science, then the next stage cannot be set. -
Structure of Scientific Revolutions and Normal Science (2)
In his book, Thomas Kuhn states that “Normal Science, for example, often suppresses fundamental novelties because they are necessarily subversive of is basic commitments." Translating, “fundamental novelties” refers to questions that cannot be answered within the paradigm. If there are too many questions that remain unanswered, this leads to the next stage: model drift. -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and Prescience (1)
In 1962, Thomas Kuhn presented his book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, to the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science. In his book, Kuhn argues that science undergoes periods of pattern shifts instead of proceeding down a linear path. Kuhn broke science down into six phases. We will be going over the initial three stages. The first phase, prescience, lacks a basic concept within science. -
Structure of Scientific Revolutions and Normal Science (1)
Normal science, the second stage, involves the grunt work of science. The normal science stage assumes that scientists know how the world works. In this stage, scientists theorize, watch, and experiment within their field of science, or paradigm. Kuhn related the normal science step as “puzzle solving”. Scientists do this by conducting problem solving that helps support the research task. Kuhn theorizes that scientists spend most of their time in the normal science stage. -
Structure of Scientific Revolutions and Model Drift (1)
The model drift occurs when anomalies are discovered that the normal science stage cannot answer. When questions begin to arise that the paradigm of the normal science stage cannot explain, the understanding begins to modify to explain the anomalies. One examples of an anomaly that lead to a paradigm shift is the discovery of Jupiter’s moons. Galileo observed that Jupiter’s moons revolved around Jupiter, sparking his idea that the Sun sat at the center of our solar system. -
Death
Thomas Kuhn passed away from lung cancer in 1996, after having been diagnosed in 1994.
