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The History of Thomas S. Kuhn
Thomas S. Kuhn graduated from Harvard University summa cum laude (1943) and continued to work on his Master's Degree in Physics in 1946, followed by his PhD in Physics in 1949 (Bird, 2018). Kuhn began teaching a Humanities course which led him to look at historical case studies instead of physics. During this time, he began looking over famous works from great philosophers like Aristotle (Bird, 2018). -
The Copernican Revolution
The Copernican Revolution was published in 1957 and provided an overview of the Heliocentric Theory of the solar system during the scientific revolution. Kuhn expounds upon Copernicus' discovery as a turning point in scientific thought and brought many significant questions to scientists--"What is the relationship between our universe and God?" (Harvard University Press, 2019). -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Thomas Kuhn had The Structure of Scientific Revolutions published in 1962 and it was the most famous of all his work. "he argued that scientific research and thought are defined by “paradigms,” or conceptual world-views, that consist of formal theories, classic experiments, and trusted methods." (Parrot-Sheffer, 2019). Kuhn's idea of a paradigm shift, incommensurability, anomalies, and normal science caused many scientists to question his definitions and think he was very strict in his ideals. -
The Kuhn Cycle - Paradigms and Criticism
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn8cCDtVd5w) The Kuhn Cycle was described in his 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. This simple model was used to describe the simple steps in normal science (thwink.org, 2019). A pre-science step was added to allow for people who are working in fields where no major breakthroughs have been discovered yet or the stage where the problem cannot be solved. -
Kuhn vs Popper Debate
Thomas S. Kuhn and Karl Popper were two philosophers of science who had different views on science. In 1965, the two had a debate after Kuhn's book in 1962. Kuhn's idea of normal science and paradigm shifts contradicts Popper's theory of falsification (UKessays, 2018).
