-
The Birth of Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Kuhn was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is known as one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century. He is best known for his idea of the paradigm shift. -
The Copernican Revolution
After obtaining his Ph.D. in history of science at Harvard University, Kuhn published his first book. This book was the study of the heliocentric theory during the Renaissance. Soon after, Kuhn redirected his focus to the philosophy of science.
Kuhn, Th. S. (1957). The Copernican revolution. Planetary astronomy in the development of western thought. Cambridge: Harvard University Press -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
In this widely known publication, Kuhn introduces the term paradigm shift. He describes a paradigm shift as a reoccurring four-step cycle that starts with normal science, model crisis, model revolution and finishes with the paradigm shift.
A link to a YouTube video is provided to further explain the structure of a paradigm shift:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L70T4pQv7P8
Kuhn, T. S. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. University of Chicago Press: Chicago -
The Road Since Structure
This is a collection of essays by Thomas Kuhn, assembled before his death in 1992. Kuhn touched on many subjects that were introduced in his publication of The structure of Scientific Revolutions. One of the key points in this collection of essays was the idea of incommensurability. Incommensurability is the idea that two paradigms cannot be compared due to the fundamental differences in the paradigms.
Thomas, Kuhn (ed.) (2000). The Road Since Structure. University of Chicago Press. -
Death of Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Kuhn influenced the scientific community by giving the world a new way of looking at science. His idea of the paradigm shift gave structure to the process of replacing old ideas with new ideas, and in return, gave scientists a new approach on solving problems. His work on paradigm shifts was revolutionary and in itself, created it's own paradigm shift. -
Image References
Ted Lacey. (n.d.). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structure_of_Scientific_Revolutions.
Thomas Samuel Kuhn (July 18, 1922 – June 17, 1996), American historian and philosopher of sciencePhotographer: Bill Pierce (Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)britannica.com, accastampato.it in 1973.britannica.com