Becks Konzept der Metamorphose und Flecks Denkstil. Überlegungen zu ihrer Verschränkung

In this paper, an interweaving of the concepts of metamorphosis, developed by Ulrich Beck, and the scientific thinking style of Ludwik Fleck is suggested. Due to our own relevant preliminary work, it seems obvious to bring these two concepts together for the purpose of a theoretical connection useful for linguistics, especially for discourse linguistics. After a short introduction (1) and a review of the state of research on Fleck’s theory of cognition (2), the core term “metamorphosis” is semantically determined (3), and comments are made on the relevance of the concept. This is followed by an analysis of Beck’s The Metamorphosis of the World, which focuses on the concept of metamorphosis as he sees it (4). Here, the linguistic relevance of the concept is emphasized, which Beck mentions explicitly. This is followed by a section on Ludwik Fleck’s Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact (5.). Here, comments are made on Fleck’s thinking style and on the thinking collective. On this basis, the synthesis of Beck’s and Fleck’s ideas is sought (6.), a directed perception with a view to social metamorphoses. This can best be done linguistically using the discourse-linguistic multi-layer analysis (DIMEAN), as proposed by Spitzmüller/Warnke. DIMEAN is presented accordingly, and subsequently modified for the analysis of linguistic manifestations of metamorphosis (6.1). Using the example of various linguistic metamorphosis phenomena from the discourse around the German federal elections of 2017–2018, the applicability of the combination of Beck’s and Fleck’s ideas is then tested (6.2). The article concludes with a summary and perspectives for further research (7).