Ludwik Fleck Quotes

Cognition is ... not an individual process of any theoretical "particular conciousness." Rather it is the result of a social activity, since the existing stock of knowledge exceeds the range available to any one individual.

The individual within the collective is never, or hardly ever, conscious of the prevailing thought style, which almost always exerts an absolutely compulsive force upon his thinking and with which it is not possible to be at variance.

If we define 'thought collective' as a community of persons mutually exchanging ideas or maintaining intellectual interaction, we will find by implication that it also provides the special 'carrier' for the historical development of any field of thought, as well as for the given stock of knowledge and level of culture. This we have designated thought style.

The current state of knowledge remains vague when history is not considered, just as history remains vague without substantive knowledge about the current state.

Cognition modifies the knower so as to adapt him harmoniously to his acquired knowledge.