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Thomas Kuhn
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Kuhn's Major Work: "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions"
Kuhn most well-known work is his book titled the "Structure of Scientific Revolutions". Kuhn proposed the idea of “paradigm shifts”. Describing a paradigm as a set of beliefs that scientists work off for a time. Scientists working within the boundaries of the paradigm with set rules and beliefs. One of the most cited authors in the discussion of philosophy, Kuhn’s work changed the way we look at various stages of science, and gave methodology to describe these changes in the form of paradigms. -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Continued
Kuhn presented his view of a paradigm shift in four distinct phases, prescience, normal science, crisis and revolution. Kuhn also presents the idea of incommensurability, the idea that it is impossible to understand one paradigm through another's terms. Please see the attached video in which Victor Gijsbers from Leiden University discusses Kuhn and his concept of paradigm shifts and incommensurability. Thomas Kuhn, incommensurability and progress -
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The Road Since Structure
After the publication of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn clarified some of his ideas in a series of essays title “The Road Since Structures.” Responding to some of his critics and replacing the concept of a paradigm with a taxonomic view. When a scientific change occurs, instead of completely dropping the previous research, the new research evolves, creating new specialties and disciplines. Creating a more evolutionary view of science. -
Kuhns Effect on the Philosophy of Science
Kuhn passed away in 1996. In his life, Kuhn redefined the way we classify scientific revolutions and provided a way for us to define different ages of science. Philosophers that have come after Kuhn have built upon Kuhn’s work, and we continue to look back at Kuhns ideas to this day.