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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 1,571,817 page views. His biography is available in 67 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 66 in 2019). Thomas Kuhn is the 13th most popular historian, the 140th most popular biography from United States (up from 169th 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

  • 1.6M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 73.55

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 67

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 12.22

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.00

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

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Among HISTORIANS

Among historians, Thomas Kuhn ranks 13 out of 339Before him are Sima Qian, Josephus, Polybius, Suetonius, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Diodorus Siculus. After him are Manetho, Hecataeus of Miletus, Procopius, Cassius Dio, Arnold J. Toynbee, and Johann Joachim Winckelmann.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1922, Thomas Kuhn ranks 5Before him are José Saramago, Stan Lee, Yitzhak Rabin, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. After him are Christopher Lee, Judy Garland, Norodom Sihanouk, Ava Gardner, Pierre Cardin, Erich Hartmann, and Franjo Tuđman. Among people deceased in 1996, Thomas Kuhn ranks 4Before him are Baba Vanga, François Mitterrand, and Marcello Mastroianni. After him are Tupac Shakur, Carl Sagan, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Jean-Bédel Bokassa, Marguerite Duras, Dzhokhar Dudayev, Ella Fitzgerald, and Joseph Brodsky.

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Others Deceased in 1996

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Thomas Kuhn ranks 140 out of 18,182Before him are Barbra Streisand (1942), John Adams (1735), Francis Ford Coppola (1939), Billy the Kid (1859), Amelia Earhart (1897), and Vin Diesel (1967). After him are Jon Voight (1938), Steven Seagal (1952), Frank Herbert (1920), Tupac Shakur (1971), John Wayne (1907), and Judy Garland (1922).

Among HISTORIANS In United States

Among historians born in United States, Thomas Kuhn ranks 1After him are Jared Diamond (1937), Donna Haraway (1944), Barbara W. Tuchman (1912), Hayden White (1928), Richard Sennett (1943), Howard Zinn (1922), Linda Nochlin (1931), Deborah Lipstadt (1947), Frederick Jackson Turner (1861), Robert Darnton (1939), and John King Fairbank (1907).