TY - BOOK ID - 90340180 TI - Genesis and development of a scientific fact AU - Fleck, Ludwik AU - Bradley, Fred AU - Kuhn, Thomas S.. AU - Trenn, Thaddeus J. PY - 1979 SN - 0226253252 9780226253244 9780226253251 0226253244 PB - Chicago (Ill.): University of Chicago press DB - UniCat KW - Knowledge, Sociology of. KW - Science KW - Syphilis KW - Philosophy. KW - Social aspects. KW - Diagnosis KW - Wassermann reaction. KW - Knowledge, Sociology of KW - Science and society KW - Sociology of science KW - Normal science KW - Philosophy of science KW - Communication KW - Knowledge, Theory of KW - Public opinion KW - Sociology KW - Social epistemology KW - Knowledge, Theory of (Sociology) KW - Sociology of knowledge KW - Serodiagnosis KW - Wassermann reaction KW - Philosophy KW - Social aspects UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:90340180 AB - Originally published in German in 1935, this monograph anticipated solutions to problems of scientific progress, the truth of scientific fact and the role of error in science now associated with the work of Thomas Kuhn and others. Arguing that every scientific concept and theory—including his own—is culturally conditioned, Fleck was appreciably ahead of his time. And as Kuhn observes in his foreword, "Though much has occurred since its publication, it remains a brilliant and largely unexploited resource." "To many scientists just as to many historians and philosophers of science facts are things that simply are the case: they are discovered through properly passive observation of natural reality. To such views Fleck replies that facts are invented, not discovered. Moreover, the appearance of scientific facts as discovered things is itself a social construction, a made thing. A work of transparent brilliance, one of the most significant contributions toward a thoroughly sociological account of scientific knowledge."—Steven Shapin, Science "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. ER -