Kuhn, Thomas (1922–1996)

Thomas Kuhn popularized the term paradigm in science and, in doing so, changed the way many scientists and others view the process of scientific inquiry. His theories and descriptions had a profound influence on science education, sociology, and the way in which the history of science was applied to the philosophy of science. Many of these influences were controversial; however, [Page 436]Kuhn is largely regarded as a central figure in the development of contemporary understanding of the nature of the scientific process.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on July 18, 1922, Thomas Samuel Kuhn studied physics at Harvard University, receiving his doctorate degree in 1949. He worked as an assistant professor in the history and philosophy of science department at Harvard. In 1956, he moved to the philosophy department of the University of California, Berkeley. In 1964, he took the position of M. Taylor Pyne Professor of Philosophy and History of Science at Princeton. Kuhn later took a professorship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and, in 1983, was named Laurence S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy there.

While working toward his doctorate degree in 1947, Kuhn was asked to teach some simple science concepts to undergraduate humanities students as part of the general education in science curriculum. This provided what Kuhn described in an interview in Scientific American in 1991 as a “Eureka” moment. While searching for an example to provide to these students, Kuhn read some of Aristotle's work on basic principles of physics, which he did not initially comprehend because it was so different from Newton's work, with which Kuhn was more familiar. On some reflection, however, Kuhn realized that Aristotle's ideas were merely different from Newton's, and neither was more correct than the other—they were simply examining the same idea through a different framework.

This was a pivotal realization, moving Kuhn away from physics into the philosophy and history of science. It was during his time as a graduate student that Kuhn wrote his best-known work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Initially published as a monograph in the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science, it was published as a book in 1962. Since then it has been translated into over a dozen languages and is still used as a fundamental text for students of the history and philosophy of science.

Through his publication of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn popularized the term paradigm, which was typically associated with areas of linguistics. Kuhn proposed that paradigms guide research and scientific efforts. He describes science as a structure consisting of three parts: pre-paradigm science, “normal” science, and revolutionary science. Pre-paradigm science, or prescience, describes the search for information on a phenomenon for which there is no shared common background or theory. Through work conducted on pre-paradigm science, normal science is created.

Normal science is where scientists are working to build on existing knowledge—that is, the central paradigm. Kuhn described scientists working within normal science as “puzzle solvers.” Paradigms provide the problems for scientists to solve. Any results that do not fit with the existing paradigm accumulate until the existing paradigm is seen as unable to explain a problem. This creates what Kuhn termed a crisis, whereon a new paradigm is formed. The new paradigm incorporates all the previous knowledge, as well as the formerly conflicting results, thereby resolving the crisis. This final stage is called revolutionary science.

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