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Thomas Samuel Kuhn
Born July 18, 1922, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Son of hydraulic engineer (father)who studied in Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a freelance editor and philanthropist for the arts.
Throughout Thomas Kuhn’s adolescent years, his family moved to different locations and so he moved to four different private schools growing up where he learned to love the subject, mathematics. -
Kuhn’s pursuit of higher education
Kuhn advised by his father, pursued a bachelor’s and master's degree in physics and graduated from his father’s old alma mater, Harvard University in 1946.
After receiving his bachelor's degree in 1943; During World War II, Kuhn worked for a research laboratory based in Harvard and was then later sent to the United Kingdom to assist in the development of radar technology as countermeasures against enemy radars. -
Thomas Kuhn’s Road to Philosophy of Science
While studying for his PhD in physics, Kuhn was invited to be an assistant for a historical case-based science course and investigated the origins of 17th century mechanics, where he came to learn for his passion in the history and philosophy of science. -
Kuhn’s Concepts of Paradigm Shifts
Kuhn was denied tenure at Harvard in 1956 and was hired at the philosophy and history department in UC Berkeley. Kuhn learned Wittgenstein’s notion of language games through colleague Stanley Cavell and developed a professional relationship with Paul Feyerabend who also work on the notion of incommensurability.
Kuhn published his book “The Copernican Revolution” in 1957 and offered this as one of his courses for his students. -
Thomas Kuhn an American Historian and Philosopher of Science
Although Thomas Kuhn did not begin his career as a philosopher, he made a huge impact on how science was viewed. From the idea that scientific development was a gradual evolution in uncovering truths to a non-linear development, the reach of consensus for fundamentals in a field, stable science, anomalies that push for paradigm shifts, to his revolution where a new paradigm is established. Not to unravel the truths but to pave future generations to more discoveries.