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Thomas Kuhn 1922-1996: Early Years
• Thomas Samuel Kuhn was born in 1922 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was the eldest of his siblings. His father was a hydraulic engineer turned investment consultant and his mother was an educator who did professional editing (Nickles, Pg. 8) the family moved to New York City and later to a country town an hour away up the Hudson River -
Thomas Kuhn 1922-1996: Attends Harvard
• In 1940 he was admitted to Harvard as an undergraduate. During this time period Kuhn found Kant’s philosophy a “revelation,” a discovery that influenced Kuhn’s later intellectual development.(Nickles, Pg.8). -
Thomas Kuhn 1922-1996: The Impact of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Kuhn Book was published in 1962 “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”. This book had an enormous impact on far more than the scientific community and influencing philosophers, historians and sociologists. Challenging traditional myths about science while expanding on concepts of normal science and extraordinary science that provokes revolutionary movements. Although Kuhns normal science is just as impactful but not as famous as his discussion of revolution (Godfrey-Smith, Pg. 88). -
Thomas Kuhn 1922-1996: Extension of His first book
In his 1970 “Postscript” to Structure, Kuhn qualified his claims about the role of crisis. Maintaining the concept, that crisis will provoke a revolution. Kuhn pushes the envelope with the understanding that a crisis can loosen the grip of a paradigm and make people receptive to alternatives (Godfrey-Smith, Pg. 89 -
Thomas Kuhn 1922-1996
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Reference Page
Nickles, Thomas. Thomas Kuhn. Cambridge, U.K. ;: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Print. Peter Godfrey-Smith. (2003). Theory and Reality : An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science. University of Chicago Press.
