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Thomas Kuhn Early Life
Thomas Samuel Kuhn was born to an affluent family in Cincinnati, Ohio, on July 18, 1922. He was the son of an industrial engineer and investment advisor from Cincinnati, Samuel Louis Kuhn. Thomas' mother was born into a wealthy family in New York. He was raised by parents who were both left-wing political activists and of Jewish descent, but neither practiced their respective faiths. Tom's family moved to New York when he was a few months old. -
Kuhns Work During the War
Kuhn joined the theoretical group at the Radio Research Laboratory in the summer of 1943. His group was responsible for developing countermeasures against enemy radar based at Harvard. Eventually, he was sent to the United Kingdom to work in a laboratory. For a few weeks, he studied recently captured German radar installations in France with a Royal Air Force officer, then continued into Germany. -
After the War
After the war in Europe ended, he returned to Harvard and earned a masters degree in 1946 and a doctorate in 1949. The Cohesive Energy of Monovalent Metals as a Function of the Atomic Quantum Defects was the focus of his Ph.D. thesis. The enthusiasm he once had for physics had waned even before he returned to America. In his quest for Truth, Kuhn became increasingly intrigued by philosophy, believing it offered better prospects than physics. -
Thomas Kuhn Goes to Harvard
Having earned straight A's in high school, he was accepted to Harvard University. Despite believing this was a great honor, he only learned years later that nearly everyone who applied at the time of his application was accepted. At some point, he would have to decide if he wanted to major in Physics or Mathematics. Thomas decided to major in Physics before leaving for Harvard because his father told him it would be easier to get a job as a physicist. -
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Late Life and Death
In 1948, he married Kathryn Muhs. His wife graduated from Vassar College like his mother. She typed his Ph.D. thesis. They had three children Sarah, Elizabeth, and Nathaniel. It was in 1978 that the couple divorced. Kuhn married Jehane Barton Burns 59 in 1981 when he was 59. His retirement from MIT occurred in 1991 when he was 69. Thomas Kuhn died from cancer on June 17, 1996, at 73, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He had been suffering from throat and lung cancer for the past two years. -
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Mid Life Accomplishments
As a result of his promotion to associate professor in 1958, he was granted tenure. His fellowship at Stanford University's Center for Advanced Study began in the fall of that year. His most influential work is "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." The University of California at Berkeley promoted him to full professor of the History of Science in 1961. He was infuriated by this because he wanted to teach philosophy. Ultimately, he accepted the History position. -
Paradigm Shift
In 1962, Kuhn described the paradigm shift in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. It had been in his mind for many years since he wondered how an intelligent man like Aristotle could hold absurd ideas about motion. He realized that Aristotle's view of science, specifically Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton's view of basic mechanics, was entirely different from the framework of science we use today. The paradigm shift was the change of framework. -
Kuhns Influence
The term paradigm shift is familiar to many people, but most scientists are unaware of Kuhn's work. Kuhn's work is generally more familiar to humanities students.