The emergence of objectivity: Fleck, Foucault, Kuhn and Hacking

Abstract

The analytical notions of 'thought style', 'paradigm', 'episteme' and 'style of reasoning' are some of the most popular frameworks in the history and philosophy of science. Although their proponents, Ludwik Fleck, Thomas Kuhn, Michel Foucault, and Ian Hacking, are all part of the same philosophical tradition that closely connects history and philosophy, the extent to which they share similar assumptions and objectives is still under debate. In the first part of the paper, I shall argue that, despite the fact that these four thinkers disagree on certain assumptions, their frameworks have the same explanatory goal -to understand how objectivity is possible. I shall present this goal as a necessary element of a common project --that of historicising Kant's a priori. In the second part of the paper, I shall make an instrumental use of the insights of these four thinkers to form a new model for studying objectivity. I shall also propose a layered diagram that allows the differences between the frameworks to be mapped, while acknowledging their similarities. This diagram will show that the frameworks of style of reasoning and episteme illuminate conditions of possibility that lie at a deeper level than those considered by thought styles and paradigms.

A Framework for European Thought on Psychology, Education, and Health Based on Foucault’s The Order of Things

“…With respect to the Classical period, there was a seismic shift in thinking that changed all that was then presupposed from that of the Renaissance. This shift differs both theoretically and functionally from Kuhn's notion of a revolution in paradigm (Brenner 1994) as Foucault sees ordering as being based on structures of human thought rather than sociological influences (Sciortino 2021). During the Classical period, although God was the beginning and end to inquiry, luck in outcomes and the structured and infinitesimal observation scientists could undertake left no place for God during the process of ordering (Broberg 2020).…”

Objectivity, value-free science, and inductive risk

“…21 Identifying intersubjectivity with objectivity may have misleading consequences. For instance, a paper entitled "The emergence of objectivity: Fleck, Foucault, Kuhn, and Hacking" (Sciortino, 2021) may elicit the expectation that the historical emergence of objective facts is discussed, like in (Fleck et al, 1979). However, the paper discusses how consensus emerges in scientific communities, and the author follows (unfortunately, in my opinion) Douglas' lead to call such consensus "objectivity."…”

A Framework for European Thought on Psychology, Education and Health Based on Foucault’s The Order of Things

“…With respect to the Classical period, there was a seismic shift in thinking that changed all that was then presupposed from that of the Renaissance. This shift differs both theoretically and functionally from Kuhn's notion of a revolution in paradigm [39] as Foucault sees ordering as based on structures of human thought rather than sociological influences [40]. During the Classical period, although God was the beginning and end to inquiry, luck in outcomes, and the structured and infinitesimal observation scientists could undertake, left no place for God during the process of ordering [41].…”