Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact

Fleck, Ludwik

ISBN 10: 0226253252 / ISBN 13: 9780226253251

Published by University of Chicago Press, 1981

About this Item

Gently read. May have name of previous ownership, or ex-library edition. Binding tight; spine straight and smooth, with no creasing; covers clean and crisp. Minimal signs of handling or shelving. 100% GUARANTEE! Shipped with delivery confirmation, if you're not satisfied with purchase please return item for full refund. Ships USPS Media Mail.

Seller Inventory # OTV.0226253252.VG

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication Date: 1981
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226253252
• ISBN 13: 9780226253251
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: very_good

About this title

Synopsis

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

About the Author

 Thomas S. Kuhn (1922–96) was the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His books include The Essential Tension; Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity, 1894–1912; and The Copernican Revolution.