Thomas Kuhn
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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 ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' is a 1962 book about the history of science by the philosopher Thomas S. Kuhn. Its publication was a landmark event in the History of science, history, Philosophy of science, philosophy, and sociology ...
'' was influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term '' paradigm shift'', which has since become an English-language idiom. Kuhn made several claims concerning the progress of scientific knowledge: that scientific fields undergo periodic "paradigm shifts" rather than solely progressing in a linear and continuous way, and that these paradigm shifts open up new approaches to understanding what scientists would never have considered valid before; and that the notion of scientific truth, at any given moment, cannot be established solely by objective criteria but is defined by a consensus of a
scientific community The scientific community is a diverse network of interacting scientists. It includes many "working group, sub-communities" working on particular scientific fields, and within particular institutions; interdisciplinary and cross-institutional acti ...
. Competing paradigms are frequently incommensurable; that is, there is no one-to-one correspondence of assumptions and terms. Thus, our comprehension of science can never rely wholly upon "objectivity" alone. Science must account for subjective perspectives as well, since all objective conclusions are ultimately founded upon the subjective conditioning/worldview of its researchers and participants.


Early life, family and education

Kuhn was born in
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,
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, in 1922 to Minette Stroock Kuhn and Samuel L. Kuhn, an industrial engineer, both
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
though non-observant. The family moved to Manhattan when he was an infant. From kindergarten through fifth grade, he was educated at Lincoln School, a private progressive school in Manhattan, which stressed independent thinking rather than learning facts and subjects. The family then moved north to the small town of Croton-on-Hudson, New York where, once again, he attended a private progressive school – Hessian Hills School. It was here that, in sixth through ninth grade, he learned to love mathematics. He left Hessian Hills in 1937 and spent one year at the Solebury School before attending The Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, graduating in 1940. He obtained his BSc degree in
physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
from
Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...
in 1943. As an undergraduate, he wrote for ''The'' ''Harvard Crimson'' and headed its editorial board. He also obtained MSc and PhD degrees in physics in 1946 and 1949, respectively, under the supervision of
John Van Vleck John Hasbrouck Van Vleck (; March 13, 1899 – October 27, 1980) was an American physicist and mathematician. He was co-awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1977, for his contributions to the understanding of the behavior of electronic magnetis ...
, after a short period of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
war work with Van Vleck at Harvard's secret Radio Research Laboratory that included travel to England, France, and Germany.


Career

Kuhn began his teaching career with a course in the history of science at Harvard from 1948 until 1957 as Assistant Professor of General Education and History of Science at the suggestion of university president James B. Conant. He was a Harvard Junior Fellow 1948–1951 and, as he states in the first pages of the preface to the second edition of ''
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' is a 1962 book about the history of science by the philosopher Thomas S. Kuhn. Its publication was a landmark event in the History of science, history, Philosophy of science, philosophy, and sociology ...
'', these three years of total academic freedom were crucial in allowing him to switch from studying physics to studying the
history of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient history, ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural science, natural, social science, social, and formal science, formal. Pr ...
and
philosophy of science Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. Amongst its central questions are the difference between science and non-science, the reliability of scientific theories, ...
. However, Conant's influence at Harvard declined rapidly over the course of the 50s and the general education program was refocused, and Kuhn was rejected for tenure in 1957. Kuhn taught next, after Harvard, at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
, in both the philosophy department and the history department; he was named Professor of History of Science in 1961. At Berkeley, Kuhn served as director of the
National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...
project ''Sources for the History of Quantum Physics'' 1961–1964. Kuhn interviewed and tape recorded Danish physicist
Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (, ; ; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and old quantum theory, quantum theory, for which he received the No ...
the day before Bohr's death. At Berkeley, he wrote and published (in 1962) his best known and most influential work: ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions''. In 1964, he joined
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
as the M. Taylor Pyne Professor of Philosophy and History of Science. He served as the president of the History of Science Society from 1969 to 1970. He was a member of Princeton's
Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...
1972–1979. In 1978–79, he was a fellow at the New York Institute for the Humanities. In 1979 he joined the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
(MIT) as the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy, remaining there until becoming emeritus in 1991. He served as president of the Philosophy of Science Association 1989–1990.


''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions''

''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' (''SSR'') was originally printed as an article in the '' International Encyclopedia of Unified Science'', published by the
logical positivists Logical positivism, also known as logical empiricism or neo-positivism, was a philosophical movement, in the empiricist tradition, that sought to formulate a scientific philosophy in which philosophical discourse would be, in the perception of ...
of the Vienna Circle. In this book, heavily influenced by the fundamental work of
Ludwik Fleck Ludwik Fleck (, ; 11 July 1896 – 5 June 1961) was a Polish, Jewish, and Israeli physician and biologist who did important work in epidemic typhus in Lwów, Poland, with Rudolf Weigl and in the 1930s developed the concepts of "''Denkstil''" ("t ...
(on the possible influence of Fleck on Kuhn see), Kuhn argued that science does not progress via a linear accumulation of new knowledge, but undergoes periodic revolutions, also called " paradigm shifts" (although he did not coin the phrase, he did contribute to its increase in popularity), in which the nature of scientific inquiry within a particular field is abruptly transformed. In general, science is broken up into three distinct stages. Prescience, which lacks a central paradigm, comes first. This is followed by " normal science", when scientists attempt to enlarge the central paradigm by "puzzle-solving". Guided by the paradigm, normal science is extremely productive: "when the paradigm is successful, the profession will have solved problems that its members could scarcely have imagined and would never have undertaken without commitment to the paradigm". In regard to experimentation and collection of data with a view toward solving problems through the commitment to a paradigm, Kuhn states:
The operations and measurements that a scientist undertakes in the laboratory are not "the given" of experience but rather "the collected with difficulty." They are not what the scientist sees—at least not before his research is well advanced and his attention focused. Rather, they are concrete indices to the content of more elementary perceptions, and as such they are selected for the close scrutiny of normal research only because they promise opportunity for the fruitful elaboration of an accepted paradigm. Far more clearly than the immediate experience from which they in part derive, operations and measurements are paradigm-determined. Science does not deal in all possible laboratory manipulations. Instead, it selects those relevant to the juxtaposition of a paradigm with the immediate experience that that paradigm has partially determined. As a result, scientists with different paradigms engage in different concrete laboratory manipulations.
During the period of normal science, the failure of a result to conform to the paradigm is seen not as refuting the paradigm, but as the mistake of the researcher, contra
Karl Popper Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian–British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the ...
's
falsifiability Falsifiability (or refutability) is a deductive standard of evaluation of scientific theories and hypotheses, introduced by the Philosophy of science, philosopher of science Karl Popper in his book ''The Logic of Scientific Discovery'' (1934). ...
criterion. As anomalous results build up, science reaches a ''crisis'', at which point a new paradigm, which subsumes the old results along with the anomalous results into one framework, is accepted. This is termed ''revolutionary science''. The difference between the normal and revolutionary science soon sparked the Kuhn-Popper debate. In ''SSR'', Kuhn also argues that rival paradigms are incommensurable—that is, it is not possible to understand one paradigm through the conceptual framework and terminology of another rival paradigm. For many critics, for example David Stove ('' Popper and After'', 1982), this thesis seemed to entail that theory choice is fundamentally irrational: if rival theories cannot be directly compared, then one cannot make a rational choice as to which one is better. Whether Kuhn's views had such relativistic consequences is the subject of much debate; Kuhn himself denied the accusation of relativism in the third edition of ''SSR'', and sought to clarify his views to avoid further misinterpretation.
Freeman Dyson Freeman John Dyson (15 December 1923 – 28 February 2020) was a British-American theoretical physics, theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his works in quantum field theory, astrophysics, random matrix, random matrices, math ...
has quoted Kuhn as saying "I am not a Kuhnian!", referring to the relativism that some philosophers have developed based on his work. ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' is the single most widely cited book in the social sciences. The enormous impact of Kuhn's work can be measured in the changes it brought about in the vocabulary of the philosophy of science: besides "paradigm shift", Kuhn popularized the word ''
paradigm In science and philosophy, a paradigm ( ) is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field. The word ''paradigm'' is Ancient ...
'' itself from a term used in certain forms of
linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
and the work of Georg Lichtenberg to its current broader meaning, coined the term " normal science" to refer to the relatively routine, day-to-day work of scientists working within a paradigm, and was largely responsible for the use of the term " scientific revolutions" in the plural, taking place at widely different periods of time and in different disciplines, as opposed to a single
Scientific Revolution The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of History of science, modern science during the early modern period, when developments in History of mathematics#Mathematics during the Scientific Revolution, mathemati ...
in the late Renaissance. The frequent use of the phrase "paradigm shift" has made scientists more aware of and in many cases more receptive to paradigm changes, so that Kuhn's analysis of the evolution of scientific views has by itself influenced that evolution. Kuhn's work has been extensively used in social science; for instance, in the post-positivist/ positivist debate within
International Relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...
. Kuhn is credited as a foundational force behind the post- Mertonian sociology of scientific knowledge. Kuhn's work has also been used in the Arts and Humanities, such as by Matthew Edward Harris to distinguish between scientific and historical communities (such as political or religious groups): 'political-religious beliefs and opinions are not epistemologically the same as those pertaining to scientific theories'. This is because would-be scientists' worldviews are changed through rigorous training, through the engagement between what Kuhn calls 'exemplars' and the Global Paradigm. Kuhn's notions of paradigms and paradigm shifts have been influential in understanding the history of economic thought, for example the Keynesian Revolution, and in debates in political science. A defense Kuhn gives against the objection that his account of science from ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' results in relativism can be found in an essay by Kuhn called "Objectivity, Value Judgment, and Theory Choice." In this essay, he reiterates five criteria from the penultimate chapter of ''SSR'' that determine (or help determine, more properly) theory choice: # ''Accurate'' – empirically adequate with experimentation and observation # ''Consistent'' – internally consistent, but also externally consistent with other theories # ''Broad Scope'' – a theory's consequences should extend beyond that which it was initially designed to explain # ''Simple'' – the simplest explanation, principally similar to
Occam's razor In philosophy, Occam's razor (also spelled Ockham's razor or Ocham's razor; ) is the problem-solving principle that recommends searching for explanations constructed with the smallest possible set of elements. It is also known as the principle o ...
# ''Fruitful'' – a theory should disclose new phenomena or new relationships among phenomena He then goes on to show how, although these criteria admittedly determine theory choice, they are imprecise in practice and relative to individual scientists. According to Kuhn, "When scientists must choose between competing theories, two men fully committed to the same list of criteria for choice may nevertheless reach different conclusions." For this reason, the criteria still are not "objective" in the usual sense of the word because individual scientists reach different conclusions with the same criteria due to valuing one criterion over another or even adding additional criteria for selfish or other subjective reasons. Kuhn then goes on to say, "I am suggesting, of course, that the criteria of choice with which I began function not as rules, which determine choice, but as values, which influence it." Because Kuhn utilizes the history of science in his account of science, his criteria or values for theory choice are often understood as descriptive normative rules (or more properly, values) of theory choice for the scientific community rather than prescriptive normative rules in the usual sense of the word "criteria", although there are many varied interpretations of Kuhn's account of science.


Post-''Structure'' philosophy

Years after the publication of ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'', Kuhn dropped the concept of a paradigm and began to focus on the
semantic Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...
aspects of scientific theories. In particular, Kuhn focuses on the taxonomic structure of scientific kind terms. In ''SSR'' he had dealt extensively with "meaning-changes". Later he spoke more of "terms of reference", providing each of them with a
taxonomy image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...
. And even the changes that have to do with incommensurability were interpreted as taxonomic changes. As a consequence, a scientific revolution is not defined as a "change of paradigm" anymore, but rather as a change in the taxonomic structure of the theoretical language of science. Some scholars describe this change as resulting from a 'linguistic turn'. In their book, Andersen, Barker and Chen use some recent theories in cognitive psychology to vindicate Kuhn's mature philosophy. Apart from dropping the concept of a paradigm, Kuhn also began to look at the process of scientific specialisation. In a scientific revolution, a new paradigm (or a new taxonomy) replaces the old one; by contrast, specialisation leads to a proliferation of new specialties and disciplines. This attention to the proliferation of specialties would make Kuhn's model less 'revolutionary' and more "evolutionary".
volutions, which produce new divisions between fields in scientific development, are much like episodes of speciation in biological evolution. The biological parallel to revolutionary change is not mutation, as I thought for many years, but speciation. And the problems presented by speciation (e.g., the difficulty in identifying an episode of speciation until some time after it has occurred, and the impossibility even then, of dating the time of its occurrence) are very similar to those presented by revolutionary change and by the emergence and individuation of new scientific specialties.
Some philosophers claim that Kuhn attempted to describe different kinds of scientific change: revolutions and specialty-creation. Others claim that the process of specialisation is in itself a special case of scientific revolutions. It is also possible to argue that, in Kuhn's model, science evolves ''through'' revolutions.


Polanyi–Kuhn debate

Although they used different terminologies, both Kuhn and Michael Polanyi believed that scientists' subjective experiences made science a relativized discipline. Polanyi lectured on this topic for decades before Kuhn published ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions''. Supporters of Polanyi charged Kuhn with plagiarism, as it was known that Kuhn attended several of Polanyi's lectures, and that the two men had debated endlessly over
epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...
before either had achieved fame. After the charge of plagiarism, Kuhn acknowledged Polanyi in the ''Second'' edition of ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions''. Despite this intellectual alliance, Polanyi's work was constantly interpreted by others within the framework of Kuhn's paradigm shifts, much to Polanyi's (and Kuhn's) dismay.


Honors

Kuhn was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 1954, elected to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
in 1963, elected to the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
in 1974, elected to the United States
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
in 1979, and, in 1982 was awarded the George Sarton Medal by the History of Science Society. In 1983 he received the John Desmond Bernal Award from the Society for Social Studies of Science and in 1990 he became a corresponding fellow of the
British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...
. He also received numerous honorary doctorates. In honor of his legacy, the Thomas Kuhn Paradigm Shift Award is awarded by the
American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...
to speakers who present original views that are at odds with mainstream scientific understanding. The winner is selected based on the novelty of the viewpoint and its potential impact if it were to be widely accepted.


Personal life

Thomas Kuhn was married twice, first to Kathryn Muhs with whom he had three children, then to Jehane Barton Burns (Jehane B. Kuhn). In 1994, Kuhn was diagnosed with cancer of the bronchial tubes and throat. He died in 1996.


Bibliography

* Kuhn, T. S. '' The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957. * Kuhn, T. S. The Function of Measurement in Modern Physical Science. ''Isis'', 52 (1961): 161–193. * Kuhn, T. S. ''
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' is a 1962 book about the history of science by the philosopher Thomas S. Kuhn. Its publication was a landmark event in the History of science, history, Philosophy of science, philosophy, and sociology ...
''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962. * Kuhn, T. S
"The Function of Dogma in Scientific Research".
pp. 347–369 in A. C. Crombie (ed.). ''Scientific Change'' (Symposium on the History of Science, University of Oxford, July 9–15, 1961). New York and London: Basic Books and Heineman, 1963. * Kuhn, T. S. ''The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change''. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1977. * Kuhn, T. S. '' Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity, 1894-1912''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. * Kuhn, T. S. ''The Road Since Structure: Philosophical Essays, 1970–1993''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. * Kuhn, T. S. ''The Last Writings of Thomas S. Kuhn''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022.


References


Further reading

* Hanne Andersen, Peter Barker, and Xiang Chen. ''The Cognitive Structure of Scientific Revolutions'', Cambridge University Press, 2006. * Alexander Bird. ''Thomas Kuhn''. Princeton and London: Princeton University Press and Acumen Press, 2000. * Steve Fuller. ''Thomas Kuhn: A Philosophical History for Our Times''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. * Matthew Edward Harris. ''The Notion of Papal Monarchy in the Thirteenth Century: The Idea of Paradigm in Church History''. Lampeter and Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2010. . * Paul Hoyningen-Huene ''Reconstructing Scientific Revolutions: Thomas S. Kuhn's Philosophy of Science''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. * Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen, ''Meaning Changes: A Study of Thomas Kuhn's Philosophy''. AV Akademikerverlag, 2012. * Errol Morris. '' The Ashtray (Or the Man Who Denied Reality)''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018. * Sal Restivo, The Myth of the Kuhnian Revolution. ''Sociological Theory'', Vol. 1, (1983), 293–305.


External links


Notes for Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions"
* * James A. Marcum,
Thomas S. Kuhn (1922–1996)
, ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy''

(obituary, '' The Tech'' p. 9 vol 116 no 28, June 26, 1996)
Review in the New York Review of Books

Color Portrait

History of Twentieth-Century Philosophy of Science
BOOK VI: Kuhn on Revolution and Feyerabend on Anarchy – with free downloads for public use.
Thomas S. Kuhn, post-modernism and materialist dialectics
* Errol Morris
The Ashtray: The Ultimatum
(Part 1 f 5 parts, a critical view and memoir of Kuhn * Daniel Laskowski Tozzini
"Objetividade e racionalidade na filosofia da ciência de Thomas Kuhn"
* Thomas S. Kuhn Papers, MC 240. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institute Archives and Special Collections, Cambridge, Massachusetts. * Maurício Cavalcante Rio
"Thomas S. Kuhn e a Construção Social do Conhecimento Científico

Thomas Kuhn on Information Philosopher
*
N. M. Swerdlow, "Thomas S. Kuhn", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2013)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuhn, Thomas Samuel 1922 births 1996 deaths 20th-century American historians 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American philosophers American historians of science American male non-fiction writers American philosophers of science Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences fellows Corresponding fellows of the British Academy Deaths from lung cancer in Massachusetts Harvard University alumni Harvard University Department of Philosophy faculty Historians from California Historians from Ohio Jewish American historians Jewish American social scientists Jewish philosophers Members of the American Philosophical Society Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences faculty Philosophers from California Philosophers from Ohio Princeton University faculty Scientists from Cincinnati Taft School alumni University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty Writers from Berkeley, California Writers from Cincinnati Revolution theorists