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Early Life
Thomas Kuhn was born to educated parents in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father graduated from Harvard and MIT and his mother graduated from Vassar College. Shortly after his birth, his parents moved to New York where Thomas started early education. After completing fifth grade in New York, Thomas started moving schools every few years until his completion of high school. -
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College Education
Thomas Kuhn started classes at Harvard in the fall of 1940. He was torn between pursuing a degree in mathematics or physics. His father convinced Thomas to work towards a degree in physics due to it being easier to find a career with the physics degree. Initially struggling in his classes, Thomas graduated with a BS in physics summa cum laude. -
Aiding in the War Effort
After graduating with a BS in physics from Harvard, Thomas Kuhn joined the Radio Research Laboratory's theoretical group where he and others attempted to create countermeasures against German radar. This work began in the UK but eventually took him to liberated France where he could study captured radar systems first hand. -
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Further Education
After the war in Europe concluded in 1945, Kuhn returned to Harvard to continue his education. Kuhn earned a masters in Physics but was growing increasingly disinterested in Physics. After his MS in Physics, Kuhn earned his PhD in the History of Science from Harvard. -
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Teaching at Harvard
Beginning in 1951, Kuhn began teaching general courses at Harvard. After becoming an assistant professor, he found his calling in teaching the History of Science. -
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Berkeley
After not getting tenure at Harvard, Kuhn accepted an offer from the University of California at Berkeley to teach in both History and Philosophy. Once he was promoted to associate professor and earned tenure, he began a year-long fellowship at Stanford University. While at Stanford, he began writing The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Later, he was promoted again to full professor of the History of Science. -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is the work that Thomas Kuhn is most known for and is the book in which he coined the term Paradigm Shift. Kuhn had been pondering on paradigm shifts for years trying to understand how Aristotle held irrational beliefs on motion. After realizing that Aristotle was working within the framework of his time, Kuhn realized that the new discoveries led to new frameworks, thus a paradigm shift. https://youtu.be/sOGZEZ96ynI -
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After Berekely
After leaving Berkeley, Kuhn accepted a position at Princeton as the professor of Philosophy and History of Science. Later, Kuhn went to work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as the professor of Philosophy. -
Death
Thomas Kuhn died in Cambridge, Massachusetts of cancer.