Georges Canguilhem (Castelnaudary, June 4, 1904 – September 11, 1995 in Marly-le-Roi) was a French philosopher who specialized in epistemology and the philosophy of science (in particular, biology). Canal du Midi in Castelnaudary Castelnaudary is a commune of the Aude département in southwestern France. ... June 4 is the 155th day of the year (156th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (see link for calendar). ... is the 254th day of the year (255th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ... Marly-le-Roi is a commune of the Yvelines département, in France. ... A philosopher is a person who thinks deeply regarding people, society, the world, and/or the universe. ... It has been suggested that Meta-epistemology be merged into this article or section. ... Philosophy of science is the study of assumptions, foundations, and implications of science, especially in the natural sciences and social sciences. ... Philosophy of biology (also called, rarely, biophilosophy) is a subfield of philosophy of science, which deals with epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical issues in the biological and biomedical sciences. ...

Life and work

Canguilhem entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1924 as part of a class that included Jean-Paul Sartre, Raymond Aron and Paul Nizan. He agregated in 1927 and then taught in lycées throughout France, taking up the study of medicine while teaching in Toulouse. See also École Normale de Musique de Paris. ... Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980), normally known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (pronounced: ), was a French existentialist philosopher and pioneer, dramatist and screenwriter, novelist and critic. ... Raymond-Claude-Ferdinand Aron (March 14, 1905 — October 17, 1983) was a French philosopher, sociologist and political scientist. ... Paul Nizan (February 7, 1905 - May 23, 1940) was a French philosopher and writer. ... In France, the agrégation is a civil service competitive examination for some positions in the public education system. ... In France, secondary education is divided into two schools: the collège (IPA: ) (somewhat comparable to U.S. junior high school) for the first four years directly following primary school; the lycée (IPA: ) (comparable to a U.S. high school) for the next three years. ... New city flag (Occitan cross) Traditional coat of arms Motto: (Occitan: For Toulouse, always more) Location Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country Region Midi-Pyrénées Department Haute-Garonne (31) Intercommunality Community of Agglomeration of Greater Toulouse Mayor Jean-Luc Moudenc  (UMP) (since 2004) City Statistics Land...

He took up a post at the University of Strasbourg in 1941, and received his medical doctorate in 1943, in the middle of World War II. Using the pseudonym "Lafont" Canguilhem became active in the French Resistance, serving as a doctor in Auvergne. The University Palace in Strasbourg, and a monument to one of the universitys students, Johann Wolfgang Goethe The University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is divided into three separate institutions. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Capital Clermont-Ferrand Area 26,013 km² Regional President Pierre-Joël Bonté (PS) (since 2004) Population  - 2004 estimate  - 1999 census  - Density (Ranked 19th) 1,327,000 1,308,878 51/km² (2004) Arrondissements 14 Cantons 158 Communes 1,310 Départements Allier Cantal Haute-Loire Puy-de-Dôme...

By 1948 he was the French equivalent of department chair in philosophy at Strasbourg as well. Seven years later, he was named a professor at the Sorbonne and succeeded Gaston Bachelard as the director of the Institut d'histoire des sciences, a post he occupied until 1971, at which time he undertook an active emeritus career. The Sorbonne, Paris, in a 17th century engraving The historic University of Paris (French: ) first appeared in the second half of the 12th century, but was in 1970 reorganised as 13 autonomous universities (University of Paris I–XIII). ... Gaston Bachelard (June 27, 1884 – October 16, 1962) was a French philosopher and poet who rose to some of the most prestigious positions in the French academy. ...

In 1983 he was awarded the Sarton Medal by the History of Science Society. In 1987 he received the médaille d'or, awarded by the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... The History of Science Society (HSS) is the primary professional society for the academic study of the history of science, founded in 1924 by George Sarton. ... The Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) is the largest and most prominent public research organization in France. ...

Philosophy of biology

Canguilhem's principal work in philosophy of science is presented in two books, Le Normal et le pathologique, first published in 1943 and then expanded in 1968 and La Connaissance de la vie (1952). The former is an extended explorations into the nature and meaning of normality in medicine and biology, the production and institutionalization of medical knowledge. It is still a seminal work, in medical anthropology and the history of ideas, and is widely influential in part thanks to Canguilhem's influence on Michel Foucault. The latter is an extended study of the specificity of biology as a science, the historical and conceptual significance of vitalism, and the possibility of conceiving organisms not on the basis of mechanical and technical models that would reduce the organism to a machine, but rather on the basis of the organism's relation to the milieu in which it lives, its successful survival in this milieu, and its status as something greater than "the sum of its parts." Canguilhem argued strongly for these positions, criticising 18th and 19th century vitalism (and its politics) but also cautioning against the reduction of biology to a "physical science." He believed such a reduction deprived biology of a proper field of study, ideologically transforming living beings into mechanical structures serving a chemical/physical equilibrium that cannot account for the particularity of organisms or for the complexity of life. He furthered and altered these critiques in a further book, Ideology and Rationality in the History of the Life Sciences. Michel Foucault (IPA pronunciation: ) (October 15, 1926 – June 25, 1984) was a French philosopher and historian. ... Vitalism is the doctrine that vital forces are active in living organisms, so that life cannot be explained solely by mechanism. ...

More than just a great theoretician, Canguilhem was one of the few philosophers of the 20th century to develop an approach that was shaped by a medical education. He helped define a method of studying the history of science which was practical and rigorous. His work focus on the one hand on the concepts of "normal" and "pathological" and, on the other, a critical history of the formation of concepts such as "reflex" in the history of science. Canguilhem was also a mentor to several French scholars, most notably Foucault, for whom he served as a sponsor in the presentation of Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique for the Doctorat d'État (translated as Madness and Civilisation) and whose work he followed throughout the latter's life. Science is a body of empirical, theoretical, and practical knowledge about the natural world, produced by a global community of researchers making use of a body of techniques known as scientific methods, emphasizing the observation, experimentation and scientific explanation of real world phenomena. ...

Institutional role

As Inspector General and then President of the Jury d'Agrégation in philosophy, Canguilhem had a tremendous and direct influence over philosophical instruction in France in the latter half twentieth century and was known to more than a generation of French academic philosophers as a demanding and exacting evaluator who, as Louis Althusser remarked, believed he could correct the philosophical understanding of teachers by bawling them out. This belief did not prevent him from being regarded with considerable affection by the generation of intellectuals that came to the fore in the 1960s, including Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, and Jacques Lacan. Althusser once wrote to his English translator that "my debt to Canguilhem is incalculable" (italics in the original, from Economy and Society 27, page 171). Likewise, Foucault, in his introduction to Canguilhem's The Normal and the Pathological, wrote: Louis Pierre Althusser (Pronunciation: altuË¡seʁ) (October 16, 1918 – October 23, 1990) was a Marxist philosopher. ... Jacques Derrida (July 15, 1930 – October 8, 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher, known as the founder of deconstruction. ... Michel Foucault (IPA pronunciation: ) (October 15, 1926 – June 25, 1984) was a French philosopher and historian. ... Louis Pierre Althusser (Pronunciation: altuË¡seʁ) (October 16, 1918 – October 23, 1990) was a Marxist philosopher. ... Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan (French IPA: ) (April 13, 1901 – September 9, 1981) was a French psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and doctor. ...

"Take away Canguilhem and you will no longer understand much about Althusser, Althusserism and a whole series of discussions which have taken place among French Marxists; you will no longer grasp what is specific to sociologists such as Bourdieu, Castel, Passerson and what marks them so strongly within sociology; you will miss an entire aspect of the theoretical work done by psychoanalysts, particularly by the followers of Lacan. Further, in the entire discussion of ideas which preceded or followed the movement of '68, it is easy to find the place of those who, from near or from afar, had been trained by Canguilhem." Pierre Bourdieu (August 1, 1930 – January 23, 2002) was an acclaimed French sociologist whose work employed methods drawn from a wide range of disciplines: from philosophy and literary theory to sociology and anthropology. ... Sociology (from Latin: socius, companion; and the suffix -ology, the study of, from Greek λόγος, lógos, knowledge) is an academic and applied discipline that studies society and human social interaction. ... Psychoanalysis is a family of psychological theories and methods based on the work of Sigmund Freud. ... A May 1968 poster: Be young and shut up, with stereotypical silhouette of General de Gaulle. ...

Jacques Derrida recalled that Canguilhem advised him early in his career that he would have to distinguish himself as a serious scholar before he could exhibit professionally the particular philosophical sense of humour for which he is at turns famous and notorious, advice which Derrida seemed to have taken in earnest.

After years of neglect, the past decade has seen a great deal of Canguilhem's writings translated into English. Among them are a collection of essays entitled A Vital Rationalist and his most celebrated work, The Normal and the Pathological.

Bibliography

Primary literature

• Essai sur quelques problèmes concernant le normal et le pathologique (1943), re-published with the title Le normal et le pathologique, augmenté de Nouvelles réflexions concernant le normal et le pathologique (1966).
• La connaissance de la vie (1952).
• La formation du concept de réflexe aux XVII et XVIII siècles (1955).
• Du développement à l’évolution au XIX siècle (1962).
• Etudes d’histoire et de philosophie des sciences (1968).
• Vie et Régulation, articles contributed to Encyclopaedia Universalis (1974).
• Idéologie et rationalité dans l’histoire des sciences de la vie (1977).
• La santé, concept vulgaire et question philosophique (1988).

Translations into English

• Ideology and rationality in the history of the life sciences, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1988).
• The Normal and the Pathological, trans. Carolyn R. Fawcett & Robert S. Cohen (New York: Zone Books, 1991).
• A Vital Rationalist: Selected Writings, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (New York: Zone Books, 1994).

Secondary literature

• Étienne Balibar et al, Georges Canguilhem: philosophe, historien des sciences (Paris: Albin Michel, 1993).
• François Dagognet, Georges Canguilhem: Philosophie de la vie (Paris: 1997).
• Michel Foucault, "Introduction" to Canguilhem, The Normal and the Pathological.
• R. Horton, "Georges Canguilhem: philosopher of disease," Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 88 (1995): 316-319.
• Paul Rabinow, "Introduction: A Vital Rationalist," in Canguilhem, A Vital Rationalist: Selected Writings.
• Economy and Society 27:2-3 (1998). Special issue dedicated to Canguilhem.

Étienne Balibar (born April 23, 1942 in Avallon, Bourgogne, France) is a French Marxist philosopher. ... Michel Foucault (IPA pronunciation: ) (October 15, 1926 – June 25, 1984) was a French philosopher and historian. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

External links

• Centre Georges Canguilhem.
• Georges Canguilhem, 1904-1995 obituary by David Macey.
• Georges Canguilhem biography by Jim Marshall of the University of Auckland.