Thought this might be of interest to the LO list, so I'm passing it along. > >---------- Forwarded message ---------- >Date: 19 Jun 1996 03:48:37 >From: jya@pipeline.com >To: Recipients of conference <pol-sci-tech@igc.apc.org> >Subject: Thomas Kuhn Dies > >From: jya@pipeline.com (John Young) > > The New York Times, June 19, 1996, p. B7. > > > Thomas Kuhn, 73; Devised Science Paradigm [Obituary] > > By Lawrence Van Gelder > > > Thomas S. Kuhn, whose theory of sclentific revolution > became a profoundly influential landmark of 20th-century > intellectual history, died on Monday at his home in > Cambridge, Mass. He was 73. > > Robert Dilorio, associate director of the news office at > the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the > scholar, who held the title of professor emeritus at > M.I.T., had been ill with cancer in recent years. > > "The Structure of Scientific RevoIutions," was conceived > while Protessor Kuhn was a graduate student in theoretical > physics and published as a monograph in the International > Encyclopedia of Unified Science before the University of > Chicago Press issued it as a 180-page book in 1962. The > work punctured the widely held notion that scientific > change was a strictly rational process. > > Professor's Kuhn's treatise influenced not only scientists > but also economists, historians, sociologists and > philosophers, touching off considerable debate. It has sold > about one million copies in 16 languages and remains > required reading in many basic courses in the history and > philosophy of science. > > Dr. Kuhn, a professor of philosophy and history of science > at M.I.T. from 1979 to 1983 and the Laurence S. Rockefeller > Professor of Philosophy there from 1983 until 1991, was the > author or co-author of five books and scores of articles on > the philosophy and history of science. But Dr. Kuhn > remained best known for "The Structure of Scientific > Revolutions." > > His thesis was that science was not a steady, cumulative > acquisition of knowledge. Instead, he wrote, it is "a > series of peaceful interludes punctuated by intellectually > violent revolutions." And in those revolutions, he wrote, > "one conceptual world view is replaced by another." > > Thus, Einstein's theory of relativity could challenge > Newton's concepts of physics. Lavoisier's discovery of > oxygen could sweep away earlier ideas about phlogiston, the > imaginary element believed to cause combustion. Galileo's > supposed experiments with wood and lead balls dropped from > the Leaning Tower of Pisa could banish the Aristotelian > theory that bodies fell at a speed proportional to their > weight. And Darwin's theory of natural selection could > overthrow theories of a world governed by design. > > Professor Kuhn argued in the book that the typical > scientist was not an objective, free thinker and skeptic. > Rather, he was a somewhat conservative individual who > accepted what he was taught and appiied his knowledge to > solving the problems that came before him. > > In so doing, Professor Kuhn maintained, these scientists > accepted a paradigm, an archetypal solution to a problem, > like Ptolemy's theory that the Sun revolves around the > Earth. Generally conservative, scientists would tend to > solve problems in ways that extended the scope of the > paradigm. > > In such periods, he maintained, scientists tend to resist > research that might signal the development of a new > paradigm, like the work of the astronomer Aristarchus, who > theorized in the third century B.C. that the planets > revolve around the Sun. But, Professor Kuhn said, > situations arose that the paradigm could not account for or > that contradicted it. > > And then, he said, a revolutionary would appear, a > Lavoisier or an Einstein, often a young scientist not > indoctrinated in the accepted theories, and sweep the old > paradigm away. > > These revolutions, he said, came only after long periods of > tradition-bound normal science. "Frameworks must be lived > with and explored before they can be broken," Professor > Kuhn said. > > The new paradigm cannot build on the one that precedes it, > he maintained. It can only supplant it. The two, he said, > were "incommensurable." > > Some critics said Professor Kuhn was arguing that scieace > was little more than mob rule. He replied, "Look, I think > that's nonsense, and I'm prepared to argue that." > > The word paradigm appeared so frequently in Professor's > Kuhn's "Structures" and with so many possible meanings > prompting debate that he was credited with popularizing the > word and inspiring a 1974 cartoon in The New Yorker. In. > it, a woman tells a man: "Dynamite, Mr. Gerston! You're the > first person I ever heard use 'paradigm' in real life." > > Professor Kuhn traced the origin of his thesis to a moment > in 1947 when he was working toward a doctorate in physics > at Harvard. James B. Conant, the chemist who was the > president of the university, had asked him to teach a class > in science for undergraduates majoring in the humanities. > The focus was to be historical case studies. > > Until then, Professor Kuhn said later, "I'd never read an > old document in science." As he looked through Aristotle's > "Physics" and realized how astonishingly unlike Newton's > were its concepts of motion and matter, he concluded that > Aristotle's physics were not "bad Newton" but simply > different. > > Professor Kuhn received a doctorate in physics, but not > long afterward he switched to the history of science > exploring the mechanisms that lead to scientific change. > > "I sweated blood and blood and blood, and finally I had a > breakthrough," he said. > > Thomas Samuel Kuhn, the son of Samuel L. Kuhn, an > industrial engineer, and the former Annette Stroock, was > born on July 18, 1922, in Cincinnati. > > In 1943, he graduated summa cum laude from Harvard with a > bachelor's degree in physics. > > During World War II, he served as a civilian employee at > Harvard and in Europe with the Office of Scientific > Research and Development. > > He received master's and doctoral degrees in physics from > Harvard in 1946 and 1949. From 1948 to 1956, he held > various posts at Harvard, rising to an assistant > professorship in general education and the history of > science. > > He then joined the faculty of the University of California > at Berkeley, where he was named a professor of history of > science in 1961. In 1964, he joined the faculty at > Princeton, where he was the M. Taylor Pyne Professor of > Philosophy and History of Science until 1979, when he > joined the faculty of M.I.T. > > Professor Kuhn was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1954-55, the > winner of the George Sarton Medal in the History of Science > in 1982, and the holder of honorary degrees from many > institutions, among them the University of Notre Dame, > Columbia University, the University of Chicago the > University of Padua and the University of Athens. > > He is survived by his wife, Jehane and three children, > Sarah Kuhn of Framingham, Mass., Elizabeth Kuhn of Los > Angeles and Nathaniel Kuhn of Arlington, Mass. > > [Photo] Thomas S. Kuhn > > [End]
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Jack Hirschfeld Isn't it queer? Losing my timing this late in my
jack@his.com career? And where are the clowns?
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