Thomas Kuhn
By this guy 
Content:
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biography info
thoughts on knowledge
or theories
quotes
metaphor to describe world
Words you need to know
• Paradigm:
– what is to be observed and scrutinized
– the kind of questions that are supposed to be
asked and probed for answers in relation to
this subject
– how these questions are to be structured
– how the results of scientific investigations
should be interpreted
• Normal Science: “problem solving”
Biography:
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Born July 18, 1922, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.—died June 17, 1996, Cambridge,
Mass.
American historian of science noted for The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions (1962), one of the most influential works of history and
philosophy written in the 20th century.
Kuhn earned bachelor's (1943) and master's (1946) degrees in physics at
Harvard University but obtained his Ph.D. (1949) there in the history of
science. He taught the history or philosophy of science at Harvard (1951–
56), the University of California at Berkeley (1956–64), Princeton
University (1964–79), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(1979–91).
Famous Books:
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The Copernican Revolution (1957): Kuhn talks about heliocentric universe
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962): argues that scientific
research and thought are defined by “paradigms,” or conceptual worldviews, that consist of formal theories, classic experiments, and trusted
methods.
Kuhn's book revolutionized the history and philosophy of science, and his
concept of paradigm shifts was extended to such disciplines as political
science, economics, sociology, and even to business management. Kuhn's
later works were a collection of essays, The Essential Tension (1977), and
the technical study Black-Body Theory and the Quantum
Discontinuity (1978).
Kuhn and Knowledge
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Kuhn questioned the traditional conception of scientific progress as a
gradual, cumulative acquisition of knowledge based on rationally chosen
experimental frameworks.
Instead, he argued that the paradigm determines the kinds of experiments
scientists perform, the types of questions they ask, and the problems they
consider important.
A shift in the paradigm alters the fundamental concepts underlying
research and inspires new standards of evidence, new research techniques,
and new pathways of theory and experiment that are radically
incommensurate with the old ones.
Quotes:
• Normal science does not aim at novelties
of fact or theory and, when successful,
finds none
• Under normal conditions the research
scientist is not an innovator but a solver of
puzzles, and the puzzles upon which he
concentrates are just those which he
believes can be both stated and solved
within the existing scientific tradition.
Metaphor
• “Literally as well as metaphorically,
the man accustomed to inverting
lenses has undergone a revolutionary
transformation of vision.”
Bibliography:
• "Thomas Kuhn Biography." Biography.com. Web. 27 Feb.
2011. <http://www.biography.com/articles/Thomas-Kuhn37886>.
• "Thomas Kuhn." Division of Educational Studies, Emory.
Web. 27 Feb. 2011.
<http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/Kuhnsnap.html>.
• "Thomas Kuhn Quotes - BrainyQuote." Famous Quotes at
BrainyQuote. Web. 27 Feb. 2011.
<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_ku
hn.html>.
• "Thomas Kuhn Quotes." Find the Famous Quotes You Need,
ThinkExist.com Quotations. Web. 27 Feb. 2011.
<http://thinkexist.com/quotes/thomas_kuhn/>.