Ludwik Fleck, Alfred Schutz, and Trust in Science: The Public Responsibility of Science Education in Challenging Times

Abstract

Ludwik Fleck and Alfred Schutz each wrote groundbreaking treatises in the 1930s that laid the foundation for their views on the role of science education in establishing trust in science. This essay examines how science education was for Fleck explicitly and for Schutz implicitly a crucial site for understanding the social dimensions of knowledge, for understanding how layers of knowledge are socially distributed among groups, and for conceptualizing how different cognitive groups, from experts to laypersons—communicate with one another in a democratic exchange of information. Their vision of the role of science education in establishing trust is particularly appropriate for addressing contemporary challenges to science and its results.