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Week 5 - Timeline 2: Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Samuel Kuhn (1922–1996) is one of the most influential philosophers of science of the twentieth century, perhaps the most influential. -
The Copernican Revolution
The Copernican Revolution is a 1957 book by the philosopher Thomas Kuhn, in which the author provides an analysis of the Copernican Revolution, documenting the pre-Ptolemaic understanding through the Ptolemaic system and its variants until the eventual acceptance of the Keplerian system.
Kuhn, Thomas S. The Copernican Revolution Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought. Harvard University Press, 2003. -
Professor at the University of California
In 1961 Kuhn became a full professor at the University of California at Berkeley, having moved there in 1956 to take up a post in history of science, but in the philosophy department. This enabled him to develop his interest in the philosophy of science. -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn argued that science does not progress via a linear accumulation of new knowledge, but undergoes periodic revolutions, also called paradigm shifts, although he did not coin the phrase, he did contribute to its increase in popularity, in which the nature of scientific inquiry within a particular field is abruptly transformed.
Kuhn, Thomas. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University, 1973.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L70T4pQv7P8 -
The Road Since Structure
Kuhn dropped the concept of a paradigm and began to focus on the semantic aspects of scientific theories. Kuhn focuses on the taxonomic structure of scientific kind terms. As a consequence, a scientific revolution is not defined as a change of paradigm anymore, rather a change in the taxonomic structure of the theoretical language of science.
Kuhn, Thomas S., et al. The Road since Structure: Philosophical Essays, 1970-1993, with an Autobiographical Interview. Univ. of Chicago Press, 2007.
