Thomas Kuhn 1922-1996

Birth of Thomas Kuhn

Jul 18, 1922

Thomas Kuhn was born on July 18, 1922 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Harvard

1949

Kuhn got hismaster's degree in Physics at Harvard in 1946 and continued his education which led him to get his doctorate in 1949. His thesis was The Cohesive Energy of Monovalent Metals as a Function of the Atomic Quantum Defects.

Teaching at Harvard and The Copernican Revolution

1957

While teaching at Harvard Kuhn taught undergraduate courses that dug deep into Aristotle's work. Kuhn's focus on Aristotle caused him to concentrate on the history of science. This focus led to his first book being published, The Copernican Revolution. Kuhn, Thomas S. The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957.

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

1962

In 1962 Kuhn published ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’. In this book he proposed the notion of paradigm shifts. He explains that scientific fields undergo periodic shifts. We spent week four learning about Kuhn's ideas on paradigm shifts and what leads up to them. Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago :University of Chicago Press, 1970. https://youtu.be/tasVTgZc9Gw

Kuhn's Death

Jun 17, 1996

Thomas Kuhn died on June 17, 1996 at the age of 73.He had been battling cancer in his bronchial tubes and throat for two years and died in his home.