-
Kuhn was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Samuel L. Kuhn, an industrial engineer, and Minette Stroock Kuhn
-
While teaching a course centered around historical case studies, Kuhn found his first opportunity to study historical scientific texts in detail, to include Aristotle's works. which lead him to concentrate on his study of the history of science
-
After studying eighteenth century matter theory and the early history of thermodynamics, Kuhn turned to the history of astronomy, leading to the publication of his first book The Copernican Revolution.
-
This made an enormous impact on the way we view our own scientific progress and our old science. Popularizing the use of the term Scientific revolutions, being plural rather than singular allowed scientists to view small breakthroughs as massive changes, not just the revolution in the late renaissance
-
In 1962, Kuhn published his most famous works, The Structure of Scientific Revolution. This book was key in the modernization of how we view science today and our periods of scientific progress. He claimed that scientific fields undergo periodic "paradigm shifts" rather than solely progressing in straight lines and that paradigms are incommensurable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL7PA51Qs8A
-
Kuhn and Polanyi both believed in scientists experiences made science a personal and relative discipline in regards to the paradigm shift. Kuhn was accused of plagiarizing Polanyi's work on release of his book in 1962
-
Thomas Kuhn died, age 73, of cancer on June 17, 1996 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He had been suffering from throat and lung cancer for two years.