Biography of Thomas Kuhn

Full Name: Thomas Samuel Kuhn

Date of Birth: July 18th 1922

Date of Death: June 17th 1996

Place of Education: Harvard University

Thomas Kuhn started out in physics. After a while he switched the history of science, this caused his career to swing into philosophy of science however he still had an interest in the history of physics. 1943 was that day he graduated and he then spent the next couple year doing radar research at Harvard and Europe. In 1946, at the age of 24 he got his degree in physics and his doctorate was earned in 1949. Until he was 34 Kuhn taught a class in science for the undergraduates in the humanities. This course was centered around historical case studies and gave Kuhn his first opportunity to study historical science. It was this that allowed him to start reading the work of Aristotle and his initial reaction was of bewilderment, followed by a sudden understanding of Aristotle, regardless of his previous science knowledge.

It was this spark that started Kuhn concentration on the history of science and led to him being appointed to an assistant professorship in general education and the history of science. It was in this time that he focused mainly on the history of thermodynamics, the eighteenth century matter theory and the history of astronomy. This led him to write and publish his first book, The Copernican Revolution