Ludwik Fleck on the social construction of medical knowledge

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2252005
AutoresIiana Löwy (Inserm, autor de correspondencia)
Año1988
Volumen10
Número2
Páginas133-155
Fecha de publicación1988-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9566.ep11435448
PMID10302585
OpenAlexW1569379342
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas26
Referencias citadas46

The subject of the development and transmission of medical knowledge has remained, until recently, relatively little studied by medical sociologists. But as early as the 1930s the pioneering studies of Ludwik Fleck, a physician and historian of science, dealt with the evolution of medical knowledge and the genesis of medical facts. Starting with a reflection on his own experience as clinical bacteriologist and immunologist, Fleck developed highly original views on subjects such as the influence of patterns of specialization of physicians on the medical knowledge they produced, the impact of popular models of disease on expert ones, and the importance of the circulation of ideas between distinct, and - according to Fleck - incommensurable 'thought collectives'(medical scientists, general practitioners and patients) for the development of innovations in medicine. The aim of this article is to analyze Fleck's vision of medicine and to select among his ideas those which may be of interest for sociologists of medicine today

Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Library science · Medical education · Medical knowledge · Medical science · Subject (documents · Computer Science · Engineering · Historical Medical Research and Treatments · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychology