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Thomas Kuhn

Wikipedia's first sentence called it “american intellectual who wrote extensively on the history of science and developed several important notions i”. Today it says “american historian and philosopher of science whose 1962 book the structure of scientific revolutions was influ”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “American philosopher of science (1922–1996)”. It now reads “American philosopher (1922–1996)”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
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The opening as it read in 2005

Thomas Samuel Kuhn ( July 18 , 1922 – June 17 , 1996 ) was an American intellectual who wrote extensively on the history of science and developed several important notions in the philosophy of science .1 Kuhn was born in Cincinnati, Ohio to Samuel L. Kuhn, an industrial engineer, and Minette Stroock Kuhn. He obtained his bachelor's degree in physics from Harvard University in 1943 , his master's in 1946 and Ph.D. in 1949 , and taught a course in the history of science there from 1948 until 1956 at the suggestion of Harvard president James Conant . After leaving Harvard, Kuhn taught at the University of California, Berkeley in both the philosophy department and the history department, being named Professor of the History of Science in 1961 . In 1964 he joined Princeton University as the M. In 1979 he joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy, remaining there until 1991 . He is most famous for his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (SSR) ( 1962 ) in which he presented the idea that science does not evolve gradually toward truth, but instead undergoes periodic revolutions which he calls " paradigm shifts ." The enormous impact of Kuhn's work can be measured in the revolution it brought about even in the vocabulary of the history of science: besides "paradigm shifts," Kuhn raised the word " paradigm " itself from a term used in certain forms of linguistics to its current broader meaning, coined the term " normal science " to refer to the relatively routine, day-to-day work of scientists working within a paradigm, and was largely responsible for the use of the term " scientific revolutions " in the plural, taking place at widely different periods of time in the different disciplines as against a single "Scientific Revolution" in the late Renaissance . Kuhn was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 1954 , and in 1982 was awarded the George Sarton Medal in the History of Science . He was also awarded numerous honorary doctorates. He suffered cancer of the bronchial tubes for the last two years of his life and died Monday June 17, 1996. He was survived by his wife Jehane R. Kuhn, his ex-wife Kathryn Muhs Kuhn, and their three children, Sarah, Elizabeth and Nathaniel.2

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 15927181.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “american intellectual who wrote extensively on the history of science and developed several important notions i”. Today it says “american historian and philosopher of science whose 1962 book the structure of scientific revolutions was influ”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “American philosopher of science (1922–1996)”. It now reads “American philosopher (1922–1996)”. Read the current article and compare.
2005201020152020Oct '232025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.

What Wikipedia says this is

Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.

Then

american intellectual who wrote extensively on the history of science and developed several important notions i

Now

american historian and philosopher of science whose 1962 book the structure of scientific revolutions was influ

Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.

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