Thomas S. Kuhn

Abstract

Thomas Kuhn (b. 1922–d. 1996) was an American historian and philosopher of science. He completed a Ph.D. in physics at Harvard University. While a student at Harvard, Kuhn worked as a teaching assistant for James B. Conant, who was the president of Harvard University from 1933 to 1953 and who designed and taught the general education history of science courses at Harvard. This experience led Kuhn to become a historian of science. After Kuhn completed his Ph.D., he taught the history of science for a brief period at Harvard. Subsequently, he taught at the University of California, Berkeley, then at Princeton University, ending his teaching career at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (cited under Kuhn’s Work), was a very influential and widely read book, selling more than a million copies. It had a profound impact on philosophy of science. It was part of the new historical turn in philosophy of science that looked to the history of science to better understand how science works. The book took on a life of its own, which, at times, caused Kuhn much dismay. Much of Kuhn’s career was spent refining and clarifying the position he initially developed in Structure. He especially sought to defend his account of science from the charge of relativism and to distinguish his view from the view of the Strong Programme in the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (SSK). Until the end of his life he was working on a book that would clarify his view, tentatively titled The Plurality of Worlds. Four years after his death, James Conant and John Haugeland edited a collection of papers by Kuhn that represent the direction his view was developing at the end of his life (see Kuhn 2000, cited under Kuhn’s Work). James Conant is the grandson of James B. Conant. Kuhn’s influence extended far beyond the philosophy of science, into the history of science, the sociology of science, and the broader culture. “Paradigm” and “paradigm shift,” two key concepts he popularized in Structure, are now used by the educated public and scientists as well.