Genesis and development of a biomedical object: styles of thought, styles of work and the history of the sex steroids

The problem of how to access and estimate the proliferation of receptions of Ludwik Fleck’s work in domains as diverse as social geography, history of clinical medicine, and cognitive sociology has long remained vexing. The approach suggested in this paper combines the hermeneutics of effective-historical reception with a version of epistemic reconstruction of intellectual history. Special emphasis is placed upon the forms of political contextualization of Fleck’s comparative sociology of thought styles. The author argues that the heterogeneity of receptions is essentially informed by the specificity of the ‘implicit reader’ Fleck assigned to his work. Interestingly enough, it is a ‘reader’ congruent with the post-metaphysical turns in the social sciences. This claim is defended by analyzing particular trajectories of reception of Fleck’s work.

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Populating Sociology: Carr-Saunders and the Problem of Population

The Sociological Review ◽

10.1111/j.1467-954x.2008.00805.x ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 56 (4) ◽

pp. 552-578 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Thomas Osborne ◽

Nikolas Rose

Keyword(s):

Social Sciences ◽

Specific Problem ◽

History Of Sociology ◽

History Of Thought ◽

The Social ◽

Research Programmes ◽

History Of ◽

Different Shapes ◽

Thought Styles ◽

British Sociology

Research programmes in the social sciences and elsewhere can be seen as ‘set-ups’ which combine inscription devices and thought styles. The history of inscription devices without consideration of changing and often discontinuous thought styles effectively takes the historical dimension out of the history of thought. Perhaps thought styles are actually more important than the techniques of inscription that arise from them. The social sciences have relied upon multiple modes of inscription, often using, adapting or extending those invented for other purposes, such as the census. But the strategic prioritisation and deployment of specific inscriptions in analysis and argument has inescapably been dependent on particular thought styles; of which by far the most significant over the course of the first half of the twentieth century was eugenics with its specific problem of ‘population’. This paper describes the way that Alexander Carr-Saunders took up the problem of population within early attempts to develop sociology. We ask whether Carr-Saunders can be considered a ‘precursor’ of a sociologist. The history of British sociology takes different shapes – as indeed does the very idea of a history of sociology – depending on how one answers this question.

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Some Specific Features of the Serological Way of Thinking: A Methodological Study

Science in Context ◽

10.1017/s0269889700000636 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 343-344 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ludwik Fleck

Keyword(s):

Scientific Knowledge ◽

Methodological Study ◽

Thought Style ◽

History Of ◽

Way Of Thinking ◽

Thought Styles

Those who criticize the theory of thought-styles do admit their existence, but would rather see them as an obstacle to an “objective” perception, a kind of malum necessarium to be eliminated. Through an analysis of the example of serology it is, however, possible to demonstrate that the specific sociological structure of the community of serologists and the history of this discipline are intrinsically connected with a particular serological thought-style, and that the very content of scientific knowledge in this discipline stems from its thought-style. It is impossible even to imagine a styleless scientific knowledge.

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How Rice Farming Shaped Culture in Southern China

10.1093/oso/9780190492908.003.0003 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Thomas Talhelm ◽

Shigehiro Oishi

Keyword(s):

Empirical Evidence ◽

Southern China ◽

Rice Farming ◽

Rice Culture ◽

History Of ◽

Staple Crops ◽

Relationship Styles ◽

Thought Styles ◽

Ecological Determinism

We present a detailed theory linking southern China’s history of rice farming to its modern-day culture. It explains how rice was farmed traditionally, what makes it different from other major staple crops, and why these differences could shape culture. Next, the chapter reviews empirical evidence that people who have grown up in the rice areas of China have different relationship styles and thought styles from people in the wheat areas. It also discusses why the rice theory is not ecological determinism—rice does not automatically lead to collectivism. Finally, it asks whether modernization is signaling the death of rice culture or whether cultures rooted in historical subsistence style can persist even after less than 2% of the population actually farms for a living.

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The history of scientific concepts of vision in relation to Ludwik Fleck’s thought-styles

Acta Ophthalmologica ◽

10.1111/j.1755-3768.2012.02450.x ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 91 (6) ◽

pp. 579-588

Author(s):

Andrzej Grzybowski ◽

Jarosław Sak ◽

Jakub Pawlikowski

Keyword(s):

Scientific Concepts ◽

History Of ◽

Thought Styles

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Prolegomenon to the thought style of the new history of psychology

Studia Psychologica ◽

10.21697/sp.2018.18.2.01 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 18 (2) ◽

pp. 5-14

Author(s):

A. Pankalla ◽

A. Kilian

Keyword(s):

Psychological Research ◽

History Of Psychology ◽

Critical Perspective ◽

Thought Style ◽

Sources Of Knowledge ◽

History Of ◽

Psychological Knowledge ◽

Context Specific ◽

Thought Styles ◽

Insight Into

The present article provides an introduction to the new history of psychology within the framework of critical perspective while offering some methodological solutions for contemporary historical research in psychology. We propose a new model of research for conducting studies in the history of psychology. This approach is predominantly concerned with reconstructing crypto thought styles, acknowledging the existence of peripheral sources of knowledge about human psychological life, and revealing hidden lines of inquiry, which will be presented using a contextual approach to the history of psychology. In this analysis, psychological knowledge will be treated as a product of social activities that occur un-der specific historical conditions and define the scope of psychological research. The proposed to examine history of psychology and investigative practice in a specific context will allow for deeper insight into the world’s history of psychology and provide new methods for studying psychological schools of thought and ideas established on the periphery of mainstream psychology. Finally, we offer words of encouragement for scholars engaging in a context-specific study of psychological thought and efforts made towards grasping the reality of a local soul.

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