-
The Birth of Thomas Samuel Kuhn
Thomas Samuel Kuhn was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on July 18, 1922. -
Harvard
Thomas Kuhn was accepted into Harvard in 1940 at eighteen years old. During his time there World War 2 started and he decided to complete school faster by doing summer classes, which allowed him to graduate summa cum laude in 1943 with his Bachelors in Physics. -
Return to Harvard
After the war ended Thomas Kuhn returned to Harvard to get his masters in Physics and graduated with it in 1946. -
What led to the interest in the Philosophy of Science
In 1947 Thomas Kuhn was asked to give a class on History of Science at Harvard but was having trouble understanding Aristotle's Physics, which is different from what he has learned. He started to combine the ideas of science and philosophy from 350 BC - 1600, which made the information more understandable.
Thomas Kuhn dug deep into philosophy and the history of science more and this led him to write several books. One of which became a best seller. -
Harvard Doctorate
Thomas Kuhn continued school after his masters and got his PhD in 1949. -
Kuhn's book, "The Structure of Scientific Revolution"
"The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" was wrote 1962. His book brought philosophy of science and history of science together, however amazing or contentious some thought it was. In it he created a phrase called, “paradigm shift,” which is when there is a change in a theory. The idea of the phrase came from Aristotle idea on motion. Kuhn thought it was ridiculous, but he realized at that time Aristotle was building his theories off how science was used during his time, hence “paradigm shift.” -
"The Essential Tension"
Thomas Kuhn wrote, "The Essential Tension," which he describes how you should change ways you test, if something fails then try another angle. He thought that being innovative was ok if you were in “crisis.” -
Best Seller
"The Structure of Scientific Revolution," was not popular at first but by 1987 it had sold more than 650,000 copies. The book had revolutionized how people reacted and looked at science causing a shift in the scientific community. -
Thomas Samuel Kuhn death
Thomas Kuhn passed away on June 17, 1996 at the ripe age of 73 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
