Cognition and Fact: Materials on Ludwik Fleck

Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science #87

by Robert S. Cohen (editor), Thomas Schnelle (Editor)

Within the last ten years, the interest of historians and philosophers of science in the epistemological writings of the Polish medical microbiologist Ludwik Fleck (1896-1961), who had up to then been almost completely unknown, has advanced with great strides. His main writings on epistemological questions were published in the mid-1930's, but they remained almost unnoticed. Today, however, one may rightly call Fleck a 'classical' figure both of episte­ mology and of the historical sociology of science, one whose works are comparable with Popper's Logic of Scientific Discovery or Merton's pioneer­ ing study of the relations among economics, Puritanism, and natural science, both also originally published in the mid-1930's. The story of this book of 'materials on Ludwik Fleck' is also the story of the reception of Ludwik Fleck. In this volume, some essential materials which have been produced by that reception have been gathered together. We will sketch both the reception and the materials.

501 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 1986

Reviews

[Ruud Meij · Rating 4 out of 5]

Problems with the Science of Science - Ludwick Fleck is my new discovery. I'm particulary interested in the man and his work for two reasons. First, he was a Jewish microbiologist, philosopher and epistemologist who was born in Lviv (Polish: Lwòw) and teached and did his research there untill 1943, when he was deported to the death camps. He survived. Now Lviv is a city where a happen to do a lot of work on the integrity of local government. Part of 'the problem' of Lviv is its relationship with its former Polish, Jewish, German and Armenian citizens who were murdered, deportated or forced to leave between 1940-1950. Building a relationship with these ghosts of Lviv is part of 'the ethics of memory' (Margalit), which Lviv needs to reconstruct itself as a city. Ludwick Fleck is such 'ghost' and brings to live an important part of the intellectual history of Lviv. Second, Ludwick Fleck was a kind of 'street scientist', doing scientific research on public health in the most difficult circumstances one can imagine: the ghetto of Lviv, and Auschwitz and Buchenwald. He is an example of a emancipatory scientist, and also an original thinker in science and society. Here is what he writes at the beginning of his paper called 'Problems with the science of science': "It is highly interesting to establish to what extent scientists who devote the whole of their live to the problem of distinguishing illusions from reality are unable to distinguish their own dreams about science from the true form of science."