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Birth and Early Education
Thomas Kuhn was born in Cincinnati, OH to Samuel and Minette Kuhn, who were of Jewish descent. Growing up, Thomas attended many school during his formative years that stressed independent thinking over subjects and facts. This carried over into his adolescence, attending private, progressive schools where he gained a fondness for mathematics. He graduated high school from The Taft School in Waterton, CT in 1940. -
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Thomas Samuel Kuhn (1922-1996)
Thomas Kuhn was an American philosopher of science. Regarded as one of the most influential minds of the twentieth century, he is known for developing a school of thought that links history to science. This is marked by long periods of stable growth that are shaken by a paradigm shift that revolutionizes and revisions the colloquial understanding of the world. His 1962 book, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" is regarded as one of the most cited and notable academic works of all time. -
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College and Employment
Kuhn graduated suma cum laude from Harvard University in 1943. He went on to subsequently earn his Master's degree and PhD in Physics with a focus on quantum mechanics to solid state physics. He was elected to the Society of Fellows at Harvard and was hired to teach general education classes in science and humanities at Harvard. The subjects Kuhn taught focused on historical scientific case files, which shifted his interests. This resulted in his first book, "The Copernican Revolution" -
A "Paradigm Shift" of Ideas
In 1961, Kuhn took a full time position at the University of California Berkeley teaching the history of science. This was located in the philosophy department and exposed him to the writings of scientific philosophers among the likes of Paul Feyerabend and Wittgenstein. These influences would serve as a foundation for his most famous work, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962)" -
Academic Contributions
Probably one of the most cited works in acedemia, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" was written by Kuhn and published in 1962. This book lays down the idea that scientific development of science stems from adherence to "paradigms." When these paradigms are particularly difficult, confidence is waned, and this "anomaly" presses on. A scientific revolution or breakthrough is achieved after this crisis period. This radical book challenged western scientific "progress" and "truth." -
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Later Life
After the fame of "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn held several positions at University of California Berkeley, Princeton and MIT where he worked until his diagnosis and death from lung cancer in 1996.
