Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact

By Ludwik Fleck, Thaddeus J. Trenn (editor), Robert K. Merton (editor) , Frederick Bradley (translator)

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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…

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1 author picked Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Well before Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Fleck coined the term “thought collective” to explain how conformity and “group think” produce “truth” in a given social and political milieu.

In Fleck's account, what Kuhn would later term “paradigm shifts” were the result of the gradual change in agreement on what scientists consider to be true rather than some eureka moment where fact is suddenly revealed.

From William's list on the history of modern science.

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