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Thomas Kuhn's education
Thomas Kuhn was born on July 18, 1922 in Cincinatti Ohio. Through higschool he developed an interest in Physics. After high school, Kuhn attended Harvard University and studied Physics. He earned his B.S. degree in Physics in 1943. He worked on radar for a couple years and then returned to Harvard and obtained his master's degree in physics in 1946. He then worked towards his PhD in Physics and succeeded in 1949. He also studied the history of science as well as philosophy of science. -
Thomas Kuhn's contribution to the philosophy of science
Kuhn taught the history of science at Harvard from 1948 to 1956 where he was enlightened by Aristotle's book on Physics. What he took from the book was important in developing his own impactful book he later comes up with. Kuhn then taught in both Philosophy and History at Berkely and in 1962 published his most known book, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." The main idea of his book was that the development of science was pushed forward by what he called a "Paradigm." -
Kuhn's Contribution Continued
Kuhn's book had a huge impact in the Scientific world by going into detail on paradigms and scientific revolutions. The term "Paradigm Shift" became very popular and still is today. In 1964, Kuhn became a professor in philosophy and history of science at Princeton University. He then became a professor of philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he taught until 1991. -
Kuhn's lasting impact
Thomas Kuhn was diagnosed with cancer in 1994 and later died from it in 1996. Almost thirty years later and his work is still used constantly. His book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" is one of the most cited books of all time. (Sack, 2021) video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clcz647Nbiw Source:
Sack, H. (2021, July 18). Thomas Kuhn and the Structure of Scientific Revolutions. SciHi. Retrieved June 4, 2023, from http://scihi.org/thomas-kuhn-scientific-revolutions/