{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,4]],"date-time":"2026-05-04T18:45:49Z","timestamp":1777920349946,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":62,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2008,4,1]],"date-time":"2008-04-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1207008000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Soc Stud Sci"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2008,4]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>In scholarly debates, Ludwik Fleck's post-war paper `Problemy naukoznawstwa [Problems of the Science of Science]', published in 1946, has been taken unanimously to illustrate the epistemology expounded in his monograph Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact. The paper has also been seen to support parts of the received view of Fleck, notably that he manufactured an anti-typhus vaccine while imprisoned in Buchenwald. However, a different narrative emerges when comparing Fleck's paper with other accounts, also published in 1946 and written by other prisoners alluded to by Fleck in his paper. The situation is further complicated by four papers, published in prestigious scientific journals between 1942 and 1945, by the German medical leader of the typhus studies accounted for by Fleck. In addition, a thus-far neglected paper by Fleck, published in 1946 and summarizing his observations on typhus, discloses his role in the Buchenwald studies. Despite the obvious difficulties with tracing the history behind these works, notably the one on Nazi science, the contention is that what was attempted in Buchenwald in the name of science amounted to pseudoscience. This conclusion is amply supported not only by the accounts given by Fleck's fellow prisoners, but also by his own post-war paper on typhus. Based on the above findings, it is suggested that the mythology about Fleck, established in the 1980s, has been accomplished by a selective reading of his papers and also that the role played by Fleck was more complex than has so far been contemplated.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/0306312707082953","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2008,3,26]],"date-time":"2008-03-26T08:58:28Z","timestamp":1206521908000},"page":"259-283","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["Medical Science in the Light of the Holocaust"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"38","author":[{"given":"Eva","family":"Hedfors","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Philosophy and the History of Technology, Royal Institute\r                        of Technology, Teknikringen 78 B, S-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden,"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2008,4,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"atypb1","first-page":"155","volume":"5","author":"Anigstein, Ludwig","year":"1947","journal-title":"Texas Reports on Biology and Medicine"},{"key":"atypb2","volume-title":"Croix Gamm\u00e9e Contre Caduc\u00e9e. Les experiences humaines en Allemagne pendant la deuxi\u00e8me guerre mondiale [Swastika against Caduceus. The Human Experiments in Germany During the 2nd World War]","author":"Bayle, Fran\u00e7ois","year":"1950"},{"key":"atypb3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJM199005173222006"},{"key":"atypb4","unstructured":"Biagioli, Mario\n                 (1992) Science, Modernity, and the \"Final Solution\", in \n                    S. Friedlander\n                 (ed.), Probing the Limits of Representation: Nazism and the Final\n                    Solution ( Cambridge, MA:\n                        Harvard University Press):\n                    185-205."},{"issue":"2","key":"atypb5","first-page":"187","volume":"15","author":"Bonah, Christian","year":"2002","journal-title":"Ludwik Fleck: An Answer to the Crisis of Modern Medicine in Interwar Germany?, Society for the Social History of Medicine Millennium Prize Essay 2000, Social History of Medicine"},{"key":"atypb6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.shpsc.2004.06.002"},{"key":"atypb7","first-page":"313","volume":"105","author":"Bormann, F. von &amp; Preu\u00df","year":"1944","journal-title":"Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Immunit\u00e4tsforschung und experimentelle Therapie"},{"key":"atypb8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Broszat, M.\n                 (1985) Hitler and the Genesis of the Final Solution: An\n                    Assessment of David Irvines Thesis, in \n                    H.W. Koch\n                 (ed.), Aspects of the Third Reich (\n                    London: Macmillan): 390-429","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-349-17891-9_13"},{"issue":"3","key":"atypb9","first-page":"11","volume":"9","author":"Cackowski, Zdislaw","year":"1982","journal-title":"Dialectics and Humanism"},{"key":"atypb10","unstructured":"Cohen, Robert, S. & Thomas Schnelle (eds) (1986) \n                    Cognition and Fact: Material on Ludwik Fleck\n                , Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol.\n                87 (Dordrecht : D.\n                    Reidel)."},{"key":"atypb11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/BF02181177"},{"key":"atypb12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/BF02178251"},{"key":"atypb13","first-page":"233","volume":"125","author":"Ding, Erwin","year":"1944","journal-title":"Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Hygiene und Infektionskrankheiten, Bd"},{"issue":"6","key":"atypb14","first-page":"460","volume":"105","author":"Ding-Schuler, Erwin","year":"1945","journal-title":"Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Immunit\u00e4tsforschung und experimentelle Therapie"},{"key":"atypb15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.2.4263.333"},{"key":"atypb16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/BF01513488"},{"key":"atypb17","first-page":"514","volume":"79","author":"Fleck, Ludwik","year":"1933","journal-title":"Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Immunit\u00e4tsforschung und experimentelle Therapie"},{"key":"atypb18","first-page":"307","volume":"10","author":"Fleck, Ludwik","year":"1946","journal-title":"Polski Tygodnik Lekarski"},{"key":"atypb19","first-page":"332","volume":"1","author":"Fleck, Ludwik","year":"1946","journal-title":"ycie Nauki"},{"key":"atypb20","first-page":"168","volume":"5","author":"Fleck, Ludwik","year":"1947","journal-title":"Texas Reports on Biology and Medicine"},{"issue":"35","key":"atypb21","first-page":"1052","volume":"3","author":"Fleck, Ludwik.","year":"1948","journal-title":"Polski Tygodnik Lekarski"},{"key":"atypb22","volume-title":"Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact","author":"Fleck, Ludwik","year":"1979"},{"key":"atypb23","unstructured":"Fleck, Ludwik\n                 (1983) Wissenschaftstheoretische Probleme [Problems of the\n                    Science of Science], in \n                    L. Sch\u00e4fer\n                 & \n                    T. Schnelle\n                 (eds), Ludwik Fleck: Erfahrung und Tatsache. Gesammelte\n                    Aufs\u00e4tze [Ludwik Fleck: Experience and Fact. Collected Essays]\n                        (Frankfurt am Main:\n                    Suhrkamp):\n            35-72."},{"key":"atypb24","unstructured":"Fleck, Ludwik\n                 (1986) Problems of the Science of Science, in \n                    R.S. Cohen\n                 & \n                    T. Schnelle\n                 (eds), Cognition and Fact: Material on Ludwik Fleck, Boston Studies in\n                    the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 87\n                    (Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing\n                        Company): 113-27."},{"key":"atypb25","volume-title":"Thomas Kuhn: A Philosophical History for our Times","author":"Fuller, Steve","year":"2000"},{"key":"atypb26","volume-title":"[1632]) Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems - Ptolemaic & Copernican","author":"Galilei, Galileo","year":"1953"},{"key":"atypb27","first-page":"137","volume":"68","author":"Giroud, Paul","year":"1942","journal-title":"Annales Institute Pasteur"},{"key":"atypb28","volume-title":"Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus [The Adventurous Simplicissimus]","author":"Grimmelshausen, Hans Jakob C. von","year":"1967"},{"key":"atypb29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/030631286016001009"},{"key":"atypb30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/02691720600784477"},{"key":"atypb31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.shpsc.2006.12.008"},{"key":"atypb32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1162\/posc.2007.15.1.49"},{"key":"atypb33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.shpsc.2007.06.005"},{"key":"atypb34","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(01)48686-7"},{"key":"atypb35","volume-title":"Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945","author":"Judt, Tony","year":"2005"},{"key":"atypb36","volume-title":"Doctors under Hitler","author":"Kater, Michael. H.","year":"1989"},{"key":"atypb37","volume-title":"Der SS-Staat: Das System der deutschen Konzentraitionslager [The SS-State: The System of the German Concentration Camps]","author":"Kogon, Eugen","year":"1946"},{"key":"atypb38","volume-title":"The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide","author":"Lifton, Robert J","year":"1986"},{"key":"atypb39","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/03919710210001714513"},{"key":"atypb40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"L\u00f6wy, Ilana\n                 (1990) Ludwik Fleck: From Philosophy of Medicine to\n                    Constructivist and Relativist Epistemology, in \n                    I. L\u00f6wy\n                 (ed.), The Polish School of Philosophy and Medicine. From Tytus\n                    Chalubinski (1820-1889) to Ludwik Fleck (1896-1961), Philosophy and\n                Medicine, Vol. 37 (Boston: Kluwer\n                        Academic Publishers): pp.\n            215-27.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-94-009-2135-1_12"},{"key":"atypb41","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.shpsc.2004.06.005"},{"key":"atypb42","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1353\/bhm.1999.0037"},{"key":"atypb43","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.1.4490.148"},{"key":"atypb44","volume-title":"Doctors of Infamy: The Story of the Nazi Medical Crimes","author":"Mitscherlich, Alexander","year":"1949"},{"key":"atypb45","volume-title":"T\u00f6dliche Wissenschaft: die Aussonderung von Juden, Zigeunern und Geisteskranken 1933-1945 [Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific Selection of Jews, Gypsies, and Others in Germany, 1933-1945]","author":"M\u00fcller-Hill, Benno","year":"1984"},{"key":"atypb46","volume-title":"Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific Selection of Jews, Gypsies, and Others in Germany, 1933-1945","author":"M\u00fcller-Hill, Benno","year":"1988"},{"key":"atypb47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Nolte, Ernst\n                 (1985) Between Myth and Revisionism? The Third Reich in the\n                    Perspective of the 1980s, in \n                    H.W. Koch\n                 (ed.), Aspects of the Third Reich (\n                    London:\n                Macmillan): 17-38.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-349-17891-9_1"},{"key":"atypb48","volume-title":"Auschwitz: A Doctors Eye-witness Account","author":"Nyiszli, Miklos","year":"1993"},{"key":"atypb49","first-page":"909","volume":"116","author":"Olitsky, Peter","year":"1941","journal-title":"Journal of the American Medical Association"},{"key":"atypb50","volume-title":"Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis","author":"Proctor, Robert","year":"1988"},{"key":"atypb51","first-page":"389","author":"Richet, Charles","year":"1946","journal-title":"La Presse Medicale"},{"key":"atypb52","volume-title":"Courage Under Siege: Starvation Disease, and Death in the Warsaw Ghetto","author":"Roland, Charles G.","year":"1992"},{"key":"atypb53","unstructured":"Sch\u00e4fer, Lothar\n                 & \n                    Thomas Schnelle\n                 (1983) Das Auktualit\u00e4t Ludwik Flecks in\n                    Wissenschaftssoziologie und Erkenntnistheorie [Editors Introduction], in \n                    L. Sch\u00e4fer\n                 & \n                    T. Schnelle\n                 (eds), Ludwik Fleck, Erfahrung und Tatsache. Gesammelte\n                    Aufs\u00e4tze [Ludwik Fleck, Experience and Fact. Collected Essays]\n                        (Frankfurt am Main:\n                    Suhrkamp): pp.\n            9-36."},{"key":"atypb54","first-page":"545","volume":"57","author":"Schneider, William H.","year":"1983","journal-title":"Bulletin of the History of Medicine"},{"key":"atypb55","volume-title":"Ludwik Fleck - Leben und Denken. Zur Entstehung und Entwicklung des soziologischen Denkstils in der Wissenschaftsphilosophie [Ludwik Fleck - Life and Thought. On the Genesis and Development of the Sociological Thought Style in the Philosophy of Science]. PhD Thesis, Hochschule","author":"Schnelle, Thomas","year":"1982"},{"key":"atypb56","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Schnelle, Thomas\n                 (1986) Microbiology and Philosophy of Science.\n                    Lw\u00f3w and the German Holocaust: Stations of a Life - Ludwik Fleck\n                    1896-1961, in \n                    R.S. Robert\n                 & \n                    T. Schnelle\n                 (eds), Cognition and Fact: Material on Ludwik Fleck, Boston Studies in\n                    the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 87\n                    (Dordrecht: D.\n                Reidel): 3-36.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-94-009-4498-5_1"},{"key":"atypb57","unstructured":"Trenn, Thaddeus\n                 (1979a) Preface, in \n                    L. Fleck\n                , Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact\n                        (Chicago, IL: University of\n                        Chicago Press ):\n            xiii-xix."},{"key":"atypb58","unstructured":"Trenn, Thaddeus\n                 (1979b) Biographical Sketch and Annotation, in \n                    L. Fleck\n                , Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact\n                        (Chicago, IL: University of\n                        Chicago Press):\n            149-53."},{"key":"atypb59","unstructured":"Trenn, Thaddeus\n                 (1979c) Descriptive Analysis, in \n                    L. Fleck\n                , Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact\n                        (Chicago, IL: University of\n                        Chicago Press ):\n            154-65."},{"key":"atypb60","first-page":"322","author":"Waitz, R.","year":"1946","journal-title":"Presse Medicale"},{"key":"atypb61","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/acprof:oso\/9780198206910.001.0001"},{"key":"atypb62","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/00201749108602271"}],"container-title":["Social Studies of Science"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/0306312707082953","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/0306312707082953","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,1]],"date-time":"2026-05-01T19:27:55Z","timestamp":1777663675000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/0306312707082953"}},"subtitle":["Departing from a Post-war Paper by Ludwik Fleck"],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2008,4]]},"references-count":62,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2008,4]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1177\/0306312707082953"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/0306312707082953","relation":{},"ISSN":["0306-3127","1460-3659"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0306-3127","type":"print"},{"value":"1460-3659","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2008,4]]}}}