Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Samuel Kuhn ( /ˈkuːn/; July 18, 1922 – June 17, 1996) was an American physicist, historian, and philosopher of science whose controversial 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was deeply influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term "paradigm shift", which has since become an English-language staple.
Kuhn made several notable claims concerning the progress of scientific knowledge: that scientific fields undergo periodic "paradigm shifts" rather than solely progressing in a linear and continuous way; that these paradigm shifts open up new approaches to understanding that 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. Competing paradigms are frequently incommensurable; that is, they are competing accounts of reality which cannot be coherently reconciled. Thus, our comprehension of science can never rely on full "objectivity"; we must account for subjective perspectives as well.
Read more about Thomas Kuhn: Life, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Polanyi–Kuhn Debate, Thomas Kuhn Paradigm Shift Award, Honors, Bibliography
Famous quotes containing the word kuhn:
“People who have had power, when they become powerless, are really tragic.... We just allow ourselves to be conditioned by a society so we become as important as we’re supposed to be.”
—Maggie Kuhn (b. 1905)