Lwów as Cultural and Intellectual Background of the Genesis of Fleck’s Ideas

Abstract

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. I. -- Microbiology and Philosophy of Science, Lwów and the German Holocaust: Stations of a Life -- Ludwik Fleck 1896-1961 -- II. Ludwik Fleck's Papers on the Philosophy of Science -- 2.1. Some Specific Features of the Medical Way of Thinking [1927] -- 2.2. On the Crisis of 'Reality' [1929] -- 2.3. Scientific Observation and Perception in General [1935] -- 2.4. The Problem of Epistemology [1936] -- 2.5. Problems of the Science of Science [1946] -- 2.6. To Look, To See, To Know [1947] -- 2.7. Crisis in Science [unpublished, 1960] -- III. On Ludwik Fleck's Theory of Knowledge and Science -- 3.1. The Proto-Ideas and Their Aftermath -- 3.2. Polish Philosophy in the Inter-War Period and Ludwik Fleck's Theory of Thought-Styles and Thought-Collectives -- 3.3. Ludwik Fleck and Polish Philosophy -- 3.4. Lwów as a Cultural and Intellectual Background of the Genesis of Fleck's Ideas -- 3.5. Ludwik Fleck and the Influence of the Philosophy of Lwów -- 3.6. Ludwik Fleck and the Historical Interpretation of Science -- 3.7. Fleck's Contribution to Epistemology -- 3.8. Is There a Distinction Between External and Internal Sociology of Science? (Commentary on a Paper of John Ziman) -- 3.9. On Ludwik Fleck's Use of Social Categories in Knowledge -- 3.10. History of Science and Its Sociological Reconstructions -- 3.11. Some Determinants of Cognitive Style in Science -- 3.12. Some Comments on Fleck's Interpretation of the Bordet-Wassermann Reaction in View of Present Biochemical Knowledge -- 3.13. Fleck's Style -- 3.14. The Epistemology of the Science of an Epistemologist of the Sciences: Ludwik Fleck's Professional Outlook and its Relationships to his Philosophical Works -- IV. -- Bibliography Of Ludwik Fleck -- Name Index.