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Thomas Kuhn's Contribution to the Philosophy of Science
This timeline's purpose is to show sequential events within Thomas Kuhn's life that influenced the philosophy of science. References
Bird, A. (2018, October 31). Thomas Kuhn. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thomas-kuhn/
Kuhn, T. S. (1978). The essential tension : Selected studies in scientific tradition and change. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Thornton, S. (2021, September 15). Karl Popper. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/ -
Birth Date
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The Beginning: Copernican Revolution
The book, Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought, sets the stage for Kuhn's theory of paradigm shift outlined in his future works. Here Kuhn formulates the reasoning for why the Keplerian system became the widely accepted model of planetary design from previous modes like the Ptolemaic system. -
The Core Theory: The Structure of Scientific Revolution
Once Kuhn finished his theory of paradigm shifts he published his work in The Structure of Scientific Revolution. Here Kuhn, "who argued for the incommensurability of rival scientific paradigms, denied that science grows linearly through the accumulation of truths" (Thornton, 2021, para. 6). Initially it was followed by skepticism, however it became more widely accepted allowing it to take over ideas like Karl Popper's theory of falsification. -
The Essential Tension
The purpose of Kuhn's work, The Essential Tension, is to "emphasizes the importance of tradition in science" (Bird, 2018, para.7 ). Kuhn does this by diving into the history and philosophy of science, which he believes has "intellectual significance". This book reiterates Kuhn's beliefs, which he accumulated through his experience from being a physicist to his later desires in life to study the history and philosophy of science. -
Black-Body Theory and The Quantum Discontinuity
In one of Kuhn's last historical monographs, Black-Body Theory and The Quantum Discontinuity, he published his thoughts on an early theory of quantum mechanics by Max Planck. This work had mixed reviews between philosophers because of his analysis on Panck's work. -
Death Date