Article ID: CBB502099356

Fleck the Public Health Expert: Medical Facts, Thought Collectives, and the Scientist’s Responsibility (May 2016)

unapi

Ludwik Fleck is known mainly for his pioneering studies of science as a social activity. This text investigates a different aspect of Fleck’s epistemological thought—his engagement with normative aspects of medicine and public health and their political underpinnings. In his sinuous professional trajectory, Fleck navigated between two distinct thought styles: fundamental microbiological research and practice-oriented investigations of infectious diseases. Fleck’s awareness of tensions between these two approaches favored the genesis of his theoretical reflections. At the same time, his close observation of medical and epidemiological practices led him to the conclusion that collectively produced scientific facts are situated and fragile. Thought collectives, Fleck explained, can err or yield to external pressures, with potentially disastrous consequences. While Fleck the reflexive experimental scientist has been creatively translated into the science studies idiom, Fleck the reflexive practical microbiologist and public health expert still awaits inspired translation.

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Authors & Contributors
Bonah, Christian
Crenner, Christopher W.
Dorr, Gregory Michael
Evans, John H.
Fleck, Ludwig
Graboyes, Melissa
Journals
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Social Studies of Science
Bulletin of the History of Medicine
East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal
Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
Publishers
Böhlau Verlag
Boston University
Duke University Press
Franz Steiner Verlag
McGill-Queen's University Press
Oxford University Press
Concepts
Human experimentation
Public health
Medicine and ethics
Medicine
Science and technology studies (STS)
Syphilis
People
Fleck, Ludwik
Fujimura, Joan H.
Nachtsheim, Hans
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
20th century, early
20th century, late
Meiji period (Japan, 1868-1910)
Places
Germany
Japan
Arctic regions
East Africa
India
Alabama (U.S.)
Institutions
Radiation Effects Research Foundation
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