KUHN, Thomas Samuel (1922-):
very influential philosopher of science whose book The
Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) has had immense impact especially in
THEOLOGY, the SOCIAL SCIENCES and EDUCATION where his ideas have been used to promote
RELATIVISM and question the OBJECTIVITY of scientific scholarship. He argues that science
advances by a series of unrelated jumps rather than gradual improvements. The key term in
his work is PARADIGM which he uses to express the outlook of a given scientific community.
In recent years the HISTORICAL basis for his arguments have been severely criticized and
rejected by most historians of science.
