Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T18:34:19.206Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Role of Skill in Experimentation: Reading Ludwik Fleck’s Study of the Wasserman Reaction as an Example of Ian Hacking’s Experimental Realism.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2023

David Stump
David Stump*
Affiliation:
California State University-Long Beach
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Ludwik Fleck’s Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact is an extended argument for the inclusion of social factors in the history and philosophy of science. Fleck uses the history of syphilis as his case study, which falls into two parts. In the first two chapters of his book, Fleck presents a history of the change of the concept of syphilis as a “carnal scourge with strong moralistic connotations” in the middle ages to the modern concept of syphilis as an infectious disease (1979, 77). In the second part of the book, he presents a detailed account of the development of a serum test for syphilis, the Wasserman reaction. Fleck also argues that perception is theory-laden, for example, in his comparative study of anatomical drawings, and for the importance of social pressures on the development of science, for example, in his discussion of the rivalry between nations to first develop a cure for syphilis, as demanded by politicians (1979, 133 ff. and 68).

Type
Part IX. Interpreting Scientific Inference
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1988 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1988 , 1988 , pp. 302 - 308
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1988

References

Anderson, G. (1984). “Problems in Ludwik Fleck’s Conception of Science.” Methodology and Science 17: 25–34.Google Scholar
Baldamus, W. (1977). “Ludwig Fleck and the Development of the Sociology of Science.” In Human Configurations: Essays for Norbert Elias. Edited by Gleichmann, P.R., et al. Amsterdam: Sociologisch Tijdschrift, pp. 135–156.Google Scholar
Davidson, D. (1986). “A Coherence Theory of Truth and Knowledge.” In The Philosophy of Donald Davidson: A Perspective into Truth and Interpretation. Edited by LePore, E.. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, pp. 307-19.Google Scholar
Fine, A. (1986). “Unnatural Attitudes: Realist and Instrumentalist Attachments to Science.” Mind 45: 149–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleck, L. (1935). Entstehung und Entwicklung einer wissenschaftlichen Tatsache. Einführung in die Lehre vom Denkstil und Denkkollecktiv. Basel: Benno Schwabe and Co.Google Scholar
Fleck, L. (1979). Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact. Translated by Bradley, F. and Trenn, T.J. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Translation of Fleck, 1935.Google Scholar
Hacking, I. (1982). “Language, Truth, and Reason.” In Rationality and Relativism. Edited by Hollis, M. and Lukes, S. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, pp. 48–66.Google Scholar
Hacking, I. (1983). Representing and Intervening. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511814563CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hacking, I. (1984). “Five Parables.” In Philosophy in History. Edited by Rorty, R., Schneewind, J.B. and Skinner, Q. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 103–124.10.1017/CBO9780511625534.008CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, T.S. (1974). “Second Thoughts on Paradigms.” In The Structure of Scientific Theories. Edited by Suppe, F.. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, pp. 459-82. Rpt. in Kuhn, 1977, pp. 293-319.Google Scholar
Kuhn, T.S. (1977). The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226217239.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laudan, L. (1978). Progress and Its Problems: Towards a Theory of Scientific Growth. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Roller, D. and Roller, D.H.D. (1948). “The Development of the Concept of Electric Charge: Electricity from the Greeks to Coulomb.” In Harvard Case Histories in Experimental Science. Edited by Conant, J.. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, pp. 541–639.Google Scholar
Trenn, T.J. (1979). “Preface to Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact.” In Fleck, 1979.Google Scholar
Williams, M. (1986). “Do We (Epistemologists) Need A Theory of Truth?” Philosophical Topics XIV: 223–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar