HISTORIAN

Thomas Kuhn

1922 - 1996

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Thomas Samuel Kuhn (; July 18, 1922 – June 17, 1996) was an American historian and philosopher of science whose 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term paradigm shift, which has since become an English-language idiom. Kuhn made several claims concerning the progress of scientific knowledge: that scientific fields undergo periodic "paradigm shifts" rather than solely progressing in a linear and continuous way, and that these paradigm shifts open up new approaches to understanding what 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 and irreconcilable accounts of reality. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Thomas Kuhn has received more than 1,670,933 page views. His biography is available in 67 different languages on Wikipedia. Thomas Kuhn is the 15th most popular historian (down from 13th in 2019), the 206th most popular biography from United States (down from 140th in 2019) and the most popular American Historian.

Kuhn's most famous work is The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. In this book, Kuhn argues that scientific progress is not linear but rather is characterized by periods of normal science punctuated by revolutions.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.7M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 71.71

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 67

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 11.93

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.17

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among HISTORIANS

Among historians, Thomas Kuhn ranks 15 out of 561. Before him are Tacitus, Suetonius, Alexis de Tocqueville, Diodorus Siculus, Hecataeus of Miletus, and Manetho. After him are Mircea Eliade, William of Tyre, Cassius Dio, Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Arnold J. Toynbee, and Leopold von Ranke.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1922, Thomas Kuhn ranks 11. Before him are Christopher Lee, Stan Lee, Norodom Sihanouk, Judy Garland, Franjo Tuđman, and Pierre Cardin. After him are Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Erich Hartmann, Gérard Philipe, Ava Gardner, Erving Goffman, and Liliane Bettencourt. Among people deceased in 1996, Thomas Kuhn ranks 5. Before him are François Mitterrand, Marcello Mastroianni, Tupac Shakur, and Baba Vanga. After him are Carl Sagan, Marguerite Duras, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Dzhokhar Dudayev, Jean-Bédel Bokassa, Joseph Brodsky, and Ella Fitzgerald.

Others Born in 1922

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Others Deceased in 1996

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Thomas Kuhn ranks 206 out of 20,380. Before him are Whitney Houston (1963), Herman Melville (1819), Buster Keaton (1895), Johnny Cash (1932), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803), and Steve McQueen (1930). After him are John B. Watson (1878), John Williams (1932), Carl Sagan (1934), Cameron Diaz (1972), Buzz Aldrin (1930), and Benjamin Harrison (1833).

Others born in United States

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Among HISTORIANS In United States

Among historians born in United States, Thomas Kuhn ranks 1. After him are Jared Diamond (1937), Donna Haraway (1944), Richard Sennett (1943), Natalie Zemon Davis (1928), Hayden White (1928), Barbara W. Tuchman (1912), Howard Zinn (1922), Frederick Jackson Turner (1861), Linda Nochlin (1931), Joan Wallach Scott (1941), and Deborah Lipstadt (1947).

American born Historians

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