Editor’s Comments to Löwy

Abstract

Beginning with an analysis of Ludwik Fleck’s constructionist concepts, Löwy has provided a historical synopsis of immunology’s notions of the Self. The power of Fleck’s argument that a scientific fact derives meaning from multiple sources and context, and is essentially derivative from a “thought collective” of divergent and heterogenous resources, remains a central concern for epistemologists of scientific knowledge. We find it particularly conductive to a “dialectical” sensitivity, which Löwy has illustrated for the case of immunology, a discipline clearly wedged between the thought styles of biological (holistic) and chemical (reductionist) approaches. She concludes that it is the dialogical processes demanded by interaction of these alternate thought styles that has yielded both expansion of each and their ever growing synthesis. It is in the “indeterminacy” of such key concept as organism and the Self that demands interactive investigation and receptivity to various modes of inquiry. Precisely in this refracted vision of the Self is dynamic dialogue demanded. This rationale has served to unite the divergent approaches presented in this anthology under such a constructionist principle.