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Born
Thomas Kuhn was born on July 18, 1922, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Tom grew up in a fairly rich family. His dad was an industrial engineer who graduated from Harvard and his mom was an editor. Tom went to a private school. One fact about Tom is he couldn't read or write at the age of 7. He learned to love math by 6th grade. Like his father, he went to Harvard to major in Physics. -
Radio Research Laboratory
Thomas joins the theoretical group. He was assigned with how to take countermeasures against enemy radar. Later he went to the UK to work. -
Graduated from Harvard with BS in Physics
Like his father, Kuhn followed into his footsteps by attending Harvard. Thomas also couldn't make up his mind of what degree program he wanted to go into. He was going back and forth between Physics and Math. With the help of his father on making the decision, he went with physics. He also decided to attend school during the summer months because of the war to graduate faster. -
Graduated Harvard with Masters in Physics
Kuhn was awarded a doctorate in physics. -
Married
Thomas Kuhn married Kathryn Muhns. They had two daughters and a son. Then later divorced in 1978. -
The Copernican Revolution
Kuhn, Thomas S.. The Copernican revolution: planetary astronomy in the development of western thought. Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 2003, c1985. http://hdl.handle.net.ezproxy2.apus.edu/2027/heb.05519.0001.001. -
The Paradigm Shift
Was first described in his book called "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions". The definition of Paradigm Shift is a fundamental change in the approach of underlying assumptions. -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
This book is about the History of Science. Kuhn challenged the then prevailing view of progress in "normal science". It's about accepting facts and theories. Fuller, Steve. “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn.” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 36, no. 6, Blackwell Science, Ltd, Dec. 2002, pp. 824–27, doi:10.1046/j.1440-1614.2002.t01-5-01102b.x. -
Incommensurability
He came up with this concept of a "no common measure". The radical difference between old and new paradigms, such that the old cannot be derived from the new, is the basis of the incommensurability thesis. -
The Essential Tension
Creative thinking in science assumes a particular assumption in science in which science advances through unbridled imagination and divergent thinking-which involves identifying multiple avenues by which to solve a problem and determining which one works best (Kuhn). Kuhn, T. S. (1977) The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Science Tradition and Change. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. -
Black-Body Theory
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Divorce
He later divorced Kathryn Muhns in 1978. -
Quantum Discontinuity
This was Kuhn final major historical study. It was on Plancks black body radiation theory. -
Became a Professor at Princeton and MIT
Thomas became a Professor at Princeton in Philosophy and History of Science and later became MIT Professor in Philosophy. -
Marriage
Thomas Kuhn married Jehane Barton Burns. -
Retired from MIT
He later retired from MIT as a professor at the age 69. -
Death
Thomas Kuhn was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1994. He later died in Cambridge, Massachusetts on June 17, 1996. -
