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The life of Thomas Samuel Kuhn
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The Taft School in Watertown, CT
This is where it all began for Thomas Kuhn, here he first discovered his passion for mathematics and physics which later lead to his future achievements. This interest helped lay the foundation of his curiosity in the history of science, he later obtained a BS in physics at Harvard University. -
Freedom to learn at Harvard
Kuhn attributes his freedom of academics at Harvard to allow him to change fields from Physics to the philosophy and history of science. He taught Philosophy of Science at Harvard (1951-1956), and later at Berkeley (1956-1964).
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Thomas S. Kuhn.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 14 July 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-S-Kuhn. -
His First Book, The Copernican Revolution
In this book Kuhn studied the development of the Heliocentric Theory, the development of it allowed him to observe the progress of scientific understanding with full hindsight. It later served as the stepping stone for the book he is most famous for "The structure of scientific revolutions".
Kuhn, Thomas S. The Copernican revolution: Planetary astronomy in the development of Western thought. Vol. 16. Harvard University Press, 1957. -
The structure of scientific revolutions
What Kuhn is most famously known for, his publication of this book shook the foundation of the understanding and concept of scientific progress. Traditionally it was understood that progress was made by a steady acquisition of knowledge, but Kuhn proposed that we advance with different "paradigms" and our thinking shifts with common knowledge and practices of the time. For a quick summary of this work, here is a video Link text -
Citation and link to his work The structure of scientific revolutions
For anyone that is curious about his works and desire to read it themeselves here is a link.Link text Shapere, Dudley. "The structure of scientific revolutions." The Philosophical Review 73.3 (1964): 383-394.
