Ludwik Fleck (July 11, 1896 – July 5, 1961) (also written as Ludwig) was a Polish medical doctor and biologist who developed in the 1930s the concept of thought collectives. This concept is important in philosophy of science and sociology of science in that it helps explain how scientific ideas change over time, similar to Thomas Kuhn's later notion of paradigm shift or Foucault's episteme.

Fleck wrote that the development of truth in scientific research was an unattainable ideal as different researchers were locked in thought collectives (or thought-styles). He felt that the development of scientific insights was not unidirectional and does not consist of just accumulating new pieces of information, but also in overthrowing the old ones. This approach is now known as social constructionism. The Ludwig Fleck Prize is awarded annually for the best book in the area of science and technology studies. It was created by the 4S Council (Society for the Social Studies of Science) in 1992.

Fleck was born in L'viv Poland and grew up in the cultural autonomy of in the Austrian province of Galicia. He graduated from the Polish Lyceum in 1914 and he enrolled at the Jan Kazimierz University of Lvov, where he received his medical degree. In 1920 he became an assistant of the famous typhus specialist Rudolf Weigl when he was appointed to the chair in Biology at the University of Lvov in 1921. From 1923 to 1935 he worked firstly in the Department of Internal Medicine of the General Hospital in Lvov and then became Director of the Bacteriological Laboratory of the local social assurance authority. From 1935 he worked in the private bacteriological laboratory which he had earlier founded.

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Ludwik Fleck - Erfahrung und Tatsache. Nicht zu lesen!! ich will fliegen..
oqqan (f.okan karaarslan) Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:00:17 -0000
Ludwik Fleck - Erfahrung und Tatsache. Nicht zu lesen!! ich will fliegen..

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