Canguilhem: a philosophy of life and a philosophical history of life science
Résumé
At first, Georges Canguilhem's philosophy is a philosophy of medicine recognizing the main contribution of the biological knowledge to medicine. However, this philosophy also wonders about the nature of life. Life involves biological processes, but, for an individual person, life is also normativity. Canguilhem’s philosophy at once refers to the biological basis and to the human mind. His object is the vital activity with a “dimension axiologique” (moral aspect). It also supposes a critical work towards objects and scientific disciplines. According to Canguilhem, the epistemological history of the life sciences concerns a scientific activity (biological research), an activity of constitution and of emergence of (biological) scientific disciplines. The relevance of Canguilhem is the fact that the historian of science has not only to restore a history of the scientific theories or a history of the development of the sciences in context, but he would have to explore the relationship and the limits between life science and its context in the process of genesis and of scientific elaboration. A scientific work is a vital activity of a human subject, the history of science is the history of this activity, and this implies a philosophical approach. As other activities, scientific activity is a human activity. History of ecology gives a good example of a scientific elaboration from various elements and from diverse skills. History of the life sciences considers activities and processes. Ideologies that announce or extend a scientific construction also affect this discipline.
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