Abstract
Although in the last decades philosophers have increasingly paid attention to the life sciences, traditionally physics has dominated general philosophy of science. Does a focus on the life sciences and medicine produce a different philosophy of science and indeed a different conception of knowledge? Here I present a case study focussed on Georges Canguilhem. Canguilhem continued the philosophical tradition of what we now call historical epistemology, and always referred very closely to the philosophy of Gaston Bachelard. However, whereas Bachelard primarily studied the history of chemistry and physics, Canguilhem turned to the life sciences, medicine and psychiatry. I shall argue that some crucial differences in how they regarded norms, an issue seldom emphasised by Canguilhem himself or indeed by his critics, stem from the sciences on which they concentrated.
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- 1.
Georges Canguilhem, “Note sur la situation faite en France à la philosophie biologique”, in: Revue de métaphysique et de morale (1947), pp. 322-332; p. 326.
- 2.
Canguilhem, “Le rôle de l’épistemologie dans l’historiographie scientifique contemporaine”, in: Georges Canguilhem, Idéologie et rationalité dans l’histoire des sciences de la vie. Paris: Vrin, 1993 [1977], pp. 11-29, p. 20.
- 3.
For an excellent exposition of the role of history in Bachelard’s philosophy, see Georges Canguilhem, “L’Histoire des Sciences dans l’œuvre épistémologique de Gaston Bachelard”, in: Annales de l’Université de Paris 33, 1 (1963), pp. 24-39; reprinted in Canguilhem, Etudes d’histoire et de philosophie des sciences concernant les vivants et la vie (Paris, Vrin, 1994 [1968]).
- 4.
For this distinction, see Dominique Lecourt, Marxism and Epistemology. Bachelard, Canguilhem and Foucault. London: NLB, 1975, p. 166; Jean Gayon, “The Concept of Individuality in Canguilhem’s Philosophy of Biology”, in: Journal of the History of Biology 31 (1998), pp. 205-325; p. 307, n.8; Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, “Reassessing the Historical Epistemology of Georges Canguilhem”, in: Gary Gutting (Ed.), Continental Philosophy of Science. Oxford: Blackwell 2005, pp. 187-197. Michel Foucault applied the label of ‘epistemological history’ to both Bachelard and Canguilhem: Michel Foucault, The Archaelogy of Knowledge. London: Tavistock, 1972 [1969], p. 190.
- 5.
Canguilhem, “L’Histoire des Sciences dans l’œuvre épistémologique de Gaston Bachelard”.
- 6.
Gaston Bachelard, Le nouvel esprit scientifique. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1991 [1934] (Engl. tr. The New Scientific Spirit. Boston: Beacon Press 1984); Gaston Bachelard, La formation de l’esprit scientifique: contribution à une psychanalyse de la connaissance objective. Paris: Vrin, 1993 [1938] (Engl. tr. The Formation of the Scientific Mind. Manchester: Clinamen Press 2002).
- 7.
Canguilhem, Le normal et le pathologique. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1999 [1966] (Engl. tr. Canguilhem, The Normal and the Pathological (New York: Zone Books 1989 [1966]); Georges Canguilhem, La formation du concept de réflexe aux xvii e et xviii e siècles. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France 1955.
- 8.
Bachelard’s normative view of science permeates the whole of his epistemology. However, some of his works are more explicitly set out to defend his normative view, notably: Bachelard, La formation de l’esprit scientifique; Bachelard, La philosophie du non. Essai d’une philosophie du nouvel esprit scientifique. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France 1988 [1940] (Engl. tr. Bachelard, The Philosophy of No: A Philosophy of the New Scientific Mind. New York: Orion Press 1968; Bachelard, Le nouvel esprit scientifique; Bachelard, Le matérialisme rationnel. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France 1972 [1953], especially the last chapter.
- 9.
Canguilhem, La formation du concept de réflexe aux xvii e et xviii e siècles.
- 10.
Cristina Chimisso, “The Tribunal of Philosophy and its Norms: History and Philosophy in Georges Canguilhem’s Historical Epistemology”, in: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 34, 2 (2003) pp. 297-327; Chimisso, Writing the History of the Mind: Philosophy and Science in France, 1900 to 1960s. Aldershot: Ashgate 2008; Chimisso, Gaston Bachelard: Critic of Science and the Imagination. London: Routledge 2001.
- 11.
Gaston Bachelard, “Valeur moral de la culture scientifique”, in: Didier Gil (Ed.), Bachelard et la culture scientifique. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France 1993 [1934]. Bachelard in particular lamented that a mathematician like Poincaré could not see that science is normative. Regarding the normativity of mathematics, see Debru’s discussion of Jacques Bouveresse’s ideas; Debru writes: ‘Mathematics are the best example of a creative process based on rules and able to create new mental objects which may be used as new rules etc.’, Claude Debru, “The Concept of Normativity from Philosophy to Medicine: An Overview”, in: Medicine Studies 3 (2011), pp. 1-7, p. 2.
- 12.
Bachelard, Le nouvel esprit scientifique, p. 7.
- 13.
Bachelard, The Philosophy of No, p. 122 (original: Bachelard, La philosophie du non, p. 144).
- 14.
Bachelard, La philosophie du non, p. 52.
- 15.
Canguilhem, The Normal and the Pathological, p. 34; (original: Canguilhem, Le normal et le pathologique, p. 8).
- 16.
Bachelard, Le rationalisme appliqué. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France 1986 [1949].
- 17.
“Idéalisme discursive” in: Gaston Bachelard, Etudes. Paris: Vrin 1970; Bachelard, Le rationalisme appliqué.
- 18.
Bachelard, La formation de l’esprit scientifique.
- 19.
Bachelard, La philosophie du non.
- 20.
Michel Serres, “La réforme et les sept péchés”, in: L’Arc 42 (1970), pp. 14- 28.
- 21.
Bachelard, Le rationalisme appliqué, p. 123.
- 22.
Ibid., pp. 132-133, Bachelard, La formation de l’esprit scientifique, p. 50.
- 23.
Bachelard, Le matérialisme rationnel, p. 147; Bachelard, Le pluralisme cohérent de la chimie moderne. Paris: Vrin 1973 [1932], Ch. 3.
- 24.
Bachelard, L’activité rationaliste de la physique contemporaine. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1951, p. 26.
- 25.
Claude Debru, Georges Canguilhem, science et non-science. Paris: Editions rue d’Ulm / Presses de l’Ecole normale supérieure 2004, p. 83.
- 26.
Canguilhem, The Normal and the Pathological, pp. 64-65 (original: Canguilhem, Le normal et le pathologique, p. 106).
- 27.
Bachelard, La formation de l’esprit scientifique, p. 252.
- 28.
Daniel Lagache, “Le normal et le pathologique d’après M. Georges Canguilhem”, in: Revue de métaphysique et de morale 51, 4 (1946), pp. 355-370, p. 364.
- 29.
Canguilhem, Etudes d’histoire et de philosophie des sciences concernant les vivants et la vie, p. 409.
- 30.
On vital and social norms in Canguilhem, see Pierre Macherey, “Normes vitales et normes sociales dans l’Essai sur quelques problèmes concernant le normale et le pathologique”, in: F. Bing, J-F. Braunstein, and Elisabeth Roudinesco (Eds.), Actualité de Georges Canguilhem. Le normale et le pathologique. Paris: Synthélabo 1988, pp. 71-84.
- 31.
Bachelard, Le matérialisme rationnel, p. 19.
- 32.
François Dagognet, “Une Oeuvre en trois temps”, in: Revue de métaphysique et de morale 90, 1 (1985), p. 32.
- 33.
Canguilhem, Etudes d’histoire et de philosophie des sciences concernant les vivants et la vie, p. 409.
- 34.
Paul Rabinow, “Introduction: A Vital Rationalist”, in: François Delaporte (Ed.), A Vital Rationalist: Selected Writings from Georges Canguilhem. New York: Zone Books 1994, pp. 11-22, p. 16. See also Guillaume Le Blanc, Canguilhem et le normes. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France 1998, pp. 62 ff.
- 35.
Debru, Georges Canguilhem, science et non-science, p. 83.
- 36.
Canguilhem, Le normal et le pathologique, pp. 176-177.
- 37.
Bachelard, La psychanalyse du feu. Paris: Gallimard 1949 [1938], pp. 15-16; (Engl. tr. Bachelard, The Psychoanalysis of Fire, trans. Alan C. M. Ross, Boston: Beacon Press 1964 [1938]).
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H. Andersen et al. (eds.), New Challenges to Philosophy of Science,The Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective 4,DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-5845-2_32, © Springer Science + Business Media Dordrecht 2013
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Chimisso, C. (2013). The Life Sciences and French Philosophy of Science: Georges Canguilhem on Norms. In: Andersen, H., Dieks, D., Gonzalez, W., Uebel, T., Wheeler, G. (eds) New Challenges to Philosophy of Science. The Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5845-2_32
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