Thomas kuhn paradigm shift

Thomas Kuhn

Not to be confused with Thomas Kuhn (Michigan politician).

American philosopher of science (1922–1996)

Thomas Kuhn

Kuhn in 1973

Born

Thomas Samuel Kuhn


(1922-07-18)July 18, 1922

Cincinnati, Ohio, US

DiedJune 17, 1996(1996-06-17) (aged 73)

Cambridge, Massachusetts, US

EducationHarvard University (BSc, MSc, PhD)
Era20th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolAnalytic
Historical turn[1]
Historiographical externalism[2]
InstitutionsHarvard University
University of California, Berkeley
Princeton University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ThesisThe Cohesive Energy of Monovalent Metals as a Function of Their Atomic Quantum Defects

Main interests

Philosophy of science
History of science

Notable ideas

Thomas Samuel Kuhn (; July 18, 1922 – June 17, 1996) was an American historian and philosopher of science whose 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term paradigm shif

Summary

  • Thomas Kuhn argued that science does not evolve gradually toward truth.
  • Science has a paradigm that remains constant before going through a paradigm shift when current theories can’t explain some phenomenon, and someone proposes a new theory.
  • A scientific revolution occurs when: (i) the new paradigm better explains the observations and offers a model that is closer to the objective, external reality; and (ii) the new paradigm is incommensurate with the old.
  • For example, Lamarckian evolution was replaced with Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.

Paradigm Shift

Thomas Kuhn attacks “development-by-accumulation” views of science, which hold that science progresses linearly by accumulating theory-independent facts.  Kuhn looked at the history of science and argued that science does not simply progress by stages based upon neutral observations (e.g., Positivism).

For Kuhn, the history of science is characterized by revolutions in scientific outlook. Scientists have a worldview or “paradigm.”  A paradigm is a universally recognizable scientif

Thomas Kuhn and the paradigm shift – Philosopher of the Month

Thomas S. Kuhn (1922–1996) was an American historian and philosopher of science best-known for his book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), which influenced social sciences and theories of knowledge. He is widely considered one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century.

Kuhn was born in in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Samuel Lewis Kuhn, an industrial engineer, and Minette Stroock Kuhn. He obtained his Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and PhD in physics from Harvard University. While completing his PhD, he worked as a teaching assistant for Harvard President James B. Conant, who designed and taught the general education history of science courses. This experience allowed Kuhn to switch from physics to the study of the history and philosophy of science. From 1948 until 1956, Kuhn taught a course in the history of science at Harvard. Subsequently he taught at the University of California at Berkeley, then at Princeton University, and finally at MIT (Massachusetts Institute

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