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Birth/Death
Thomas Kuhn was born on July 18, 1922 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was an American physicist, historian and philosopher of science. He died on June 19th 1996 at the age of 73. -
His Theory
Kuhn made several claims concerning the progress of scientific knowledge but the most known is that scientific fields go through periodic "paradigm shifts" rather than progressing in a continuous way. These paradigm shifts open up new approaches to understanding what scientists would never have considered before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI7qocMDsXM -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
In 1962 Kuhn published his book called "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" where he explained his ideas and presented the term "paradigm shifts" to the world. Kuhn, T. S. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. University of Chicago Press. -
Contribution To Philosophy
Overall Kuhn's ideas of paradigm shifts have stood the test of time. He went against what the normal belief of science being a steady cumulative progress he believed that there are times where there are alternative progress and that it does not always just add up, knowledge can be wrong and therefore may result in a shift. Our society has adopted these ideas and that is why Kuhn is still talked about today.