Thomas Kuhn

Thomas Kuhn (1922-96) transformed the philosophy of science. His seminal 1962 work'The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'introduced the term'paradigm shift'into the vernacular and remains a fundamental text in the study of the history and philosophy of science. This introduction to Kuhn's ideas covers the breadth of his philosophical work, situating'The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'within Kuhn's wider thought and drawing attention to the development of his ideas over time. Kuhn's work is assessed within the context of other philosophies of science notably logical empiricism and recent developments in naturalized epistemology. The author argues that Kuhn's thinking betrays a residual commitment to many theses characteristic of the empiricists he set out to challenge. Kuhn's influence on the history and philosophy of science is assessed and where the field may be heading in the wake of Kuhn's ideas is explored. Annotation "The author succeeds extremely well in what he sets out to do, which is to let the reader know about Kuhn's ideas by putting in them in context and then discussing them in some detail. The book is fair, it is thorough, and it is balanced."--Michael Ruse, University of Guelph "Thomas Kuhn may well have been the most important contributor to Science Studies in the twentieth century. Alexander Bird's book about him is well written and full of creative and provocative argument."--Peter Lipton, Cambridge University