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Birth
Thomas Kuhn was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on July 18th 1922. He would go on to become one of the most controversial and influential writers of the 20th century. His writings drastically influenced the philosophy of science, and how people looked at scientific advancement. Kuhn intertwined social sciences in with the history of science, creating a blend that was previously not thought of. Previously, science was seen as something unaffected by societal norms. Kuhn proposed the opposite. -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is published
Kuhn's most important publication, the impact of this publication was described by our textbook as "just about everything written about science by philosophers, historians, and sociologists since then has been influenced by it."(Godfrey-Smith). Paradigm shifts were introduced here. Kuhn, Thomas. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press, 1962. Godfrey-Smith, Peter. Theory and Reality : An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science. University of Chicago Press, 2003. -
The Essential Tension is published
This publication was a collection of previous essays of Kuhn's. It did not nearly have the impact his first publication had, but it delved into more of Kuhn's thoughts. Kuhn had created a massive conversation about how scientific revolutions came to be, and how and why science advanced. Kuhn, Thomas. The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change. University of Chicago Press, 1977. -
Death
Kuhn greatly impacted how we think of science today. Kuhn argued that science progressed through processes driven by society called paradigm shifts. Put simply, paradigm shifts are when old ideas and norms are completely replaced by new thoughts and practices. He believed paradigm shifts would not happen purely based on empirical data alone, and had to have the added pressure of changes in society. Below is a link to a video that explains the stages of a paradigm. https://youtu.be/JQPsc55zsXA