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Birth
Thomas Samuel Kuhn was born on July 18, 1922, in Cincinnati, Ohio(Britannica). -
Early Stages of Life
Kuhn received a Ph. D. in Physics from Harvard University in 1949 and continued there as an assistant professor of General Education and History of Science. In 1956, Kuhn started work at the University of California - Berkeley, where in 1961 he became a full-time professor of History of Science. In 1964, he was named M. Taylor Pyne Professor of Philosophy and History of Science at Princeton University(Bird). -
The Copernican Revolution
Kuhn's first book, The Copernican Revolution was published in 1957. In the book he studied the development of the heliocentric theory of the solar system(Britannica). -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
In his most famous second book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions that was published in 1962, he argued that scientific research and thought are defined by paradigms that consist of formal theories, classic experiments, and trusted methods. Kuhn claimed that science guided by one paradigm would be ‘incommensurable’ with science developed under a different paradigm, by which is meant that there is no common measure for assessing the different scientific theories(Bird). -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions cont.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions revolutionized the history and philosophy of science, and his concept of paradigm shifts was extended to such disciplines as political science, economics, sociology, and even to business management(Bird). -
The Essential Tension
The Essential Tension is a collection of Kuhn’s essays in the philosophy and history of science, were published in 1977(Bird). -
Death
Kuhn suffered from cancer during the last years of his life. Thomas Kuhn died on Monday, June 17, 1996, at the age of 73 at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts(Britannica). -
Thomas Kuhn on the Incommensurability of Paradigms
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Works Cited
Bird, Alexander. “Thomas Kuhn.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 31 Oct. 2018, plato.stanford.edu/entries/thomas-kuhn/. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Thomas S. Kuhn.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 14 July 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-S-Kuhn.