The Transformations of Medical Truths in History, at the Light of Ludwik Fleck’s Critical Epistemology
Ludwik Fleck Lecture 2006 by Anne-Marie Moulin

Lecture by

Anne-Marie Moulin
Centre d’études et de documentation économiques, juridiques et sociales, EG

Details

Venue:
University of Zurich
Rämistrasse 71
8006 Zürich

Abstract

The progress of knowledge and medical knowledge in particular is commonly agreed upon. Yet, the history of medical sciences registers swift transitions and even scientific revolutions and radical changes in the mode of thought, which implies that the truth of yesterday is constantly evolving. The lecture by Anne-Marie Moulin investigated the changing nature of medical truth, by referring to historical examples of the transient nature of such truths. Is it possible to oppose scientific truths that are universal and timeless, to clinical truths that are ephemeral and being related to the individual, are earmarked with contingency? Is it possible to use the pioneering interpretation of Ludwik Fleck of medical facts as produced by a “Denkkollektiv,” sorting out the ephemeral and the stable element in medical truths or is medical truth, historically and essentially, unstable?