Slowing Down the Sciences?
Ludwik Fleck Lecture 2013 by Isabelle Stengers

Lecture by

Isabelle Stengers
Université libre de Bruxelles, BL

Details

Venue:
ETH main building
Room G60
Rämistrasse 101
8006 Zurich

Abstract

The idea of a slowing down of science is connected with the emerging conviction that the present-day relation of scientific practices with the socio-economico-political milieu they interact with is a destructive one. It will be argued that what is called «knowledge economy» may well be in the process of destroying the cooperative nature of the research dynamics which Ludwik Fleck characterized in his Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact.

In order to characterize this crucial contemporary matter of concern, the need for a comparative epistemology emphasizing the respective intrinsic constraints of different thought-collectives will be confirmed. Taking these constraints into account is necessary in order to approach the very possibility of a slowing down of science. A strong contrast will be proposed from this point of view between Ludwik Fleck and his «discoverer» Thomas Kuhn.