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by MICHEL FOUCAULT Everyone knows that in France there are few logicians but many historians of science; and that in the 'philosophical establishment' - whether teaching or research oriented - they have occupied a considerable position. But do we know precisely the importance that, in the course of these past fifteen or twenty years, up to the very frontiers of the establishment, a 'work' like that of Georges Canguilhem can have had for those very people who were separ ated from, or challenged, the establishment? Yes, I know, there have been noisier theatres: psychoanalysis, Marxism, linguistics, ethnology. But let us not forget this fact which depends, as you will, on the sociology of French intellectual environments, the functioning of our university institutions or our system of cultural values: in all the political or scientific discussions of these strange sixty years past, the role of the 'philosophers' - I simply mean those who had received their university training in philosophy department- has been important: perhaps too important for the liking of certain people. And, directly or indirectly, all or almost all these philosophers have had to 'come to terms with' the teaching and books of Georges Canguilhem. From this, a paradox: this man, whose work is austere, intentionally and carefully limited to a particular domain in the history of science, which in any case does not pass for a spectacular discipline, has somehow found him self present in discussions where he himself took care never to figure.
List of contents
Section I Essay on Some Problems Concerning the Normal and the Pathological (1943).- Preface to the Second Edition (1950).- One. Is the Pathological State Merely a Quantitative Modification of the Normal State?.- I. Introduction to the problem.- II. Auguste Comte and 'Broussais's principle'.- III. Claude Bernard and experimental pathology.- IV. The conceptions of René Leriche.- V. Implications of the theory.- Two. Do Sciences of the Normal and the Pathological Exist?.- I. Introduction to the problem.- II. A critical examination of certain concepts: the normal, anomaly, and disease; the normal and the experimental.- III. Norm and average.- IV. Disease, cure, health.- V. Physiology and pathology.- Conclusion.- Section II New Reflections on the Normal and the Pathological (1963-1966).- Twenty years later....- I. From the social to the vital.- II. On organic norms in man.- III. A new concept in pathology: error.- Epilogue.- Notes to Section I.- Bibliography to Section I.- Notes to Section II.- Bibliography to Section II.- Glossary of Medical Terms.- Index of Names.
About the author
Georges Canguilhem war Philosoph und Mediziner und einer der bedeutendsten Wissenschaftshistoriker Frankreichs. Mit seinem Denken beeinflusste er unter anderem Michel Foucault und Gilbert Simondon. Nach seinem Abschluss in Philosophie 1927 unterrichtete er zunächst an Gymnasien. Ein darauf folgendes Medizinstudium schloss er 1943 in Straßburg ab. Er nahm aktiv an der Résistance teil und richtete 1944 im Süden Frankreichs ein Lazarett ein, dessen Evakuierung er während eines Angriffes leitete. 1955 habilitierte er sich an der Sorbonne und folgte Gaston Bachelard als Leiter des Instituts für Wissenschaftsgeschichte nach.
