Background
CanguMhem, Georges was born in 239 in -51.
CanguMhem, Georges was born in 239 in -51.
Has held various academic posts, including that of Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at the Sorbonne.
Georges Canguilhem’s scientific interests were mainly in the life sciences. Following the recommendations of Gaston Bachclard. his predecessor at the Sorbonne, he advocated a historical approach to science and epistemology which took into account the changing nature of the disciplines studied and the different approaches taken by investigators at different historical periods. Canguilhem took over from Bachelard the notion of an epistemological ‘break’, which can occur when the problems of a particular discipline are insoluble within its existing conceptual framework. The ‘break’ consists of the adoption of new concepts which are developed in an attempt to solve the problems raised within the old framework. The new conceptual structure is not an extension of the old, but involves a complete ‘perspective shift’. There are no fixed, transhistorical concepts upon which all scientists and investigators, no matter from what historical period they come, can rely. The history of science and of epistemology is thus discontinuous, not evolutionary. Together with the differing conceptual frameworks and epistemological breaks, Canguilhem advocates the investigation of what has constituted the scope of a science or of epistemology during its history. There have been changes in the content of individual disciplines, as well as constant realignments between them. Presentday science has no superior status: it is not a closed and perfected body of knowledge but is, by contrast, open and subject to the possibility of review and replacement. It is only through a historical approach to science that these crucial features of openness and possible revision are revealed. Histories of science and epistemology thus cannot just be expanded in the light of further discoveries, but have to be constantly rethought and rewritten, to take into account their changing theoretical frameworks and subject matter. In his insistence that it is crucial to study and understand the historical dimensions of science and knowledge, and in his exploration of the normal and the pathological, Canguilhem exercised a great influence on the early career of one of his former students, Michel Foucault.