RESUMEN Se indaga el problema de la explotación técnica del mundo a partir de los pensamientos de Xavier Zubiri y Georges Canguilhem. Se examina el análisis zubiriano de la inteligencia humana y la tesis de Canguilhem sobre la originalidad de la actividad técnica, su relación con la ciencia y su papel en la normatividad del organismo. En ambos autores, el término Umwelt, traducido como "circun-mundo" o medio de comportamiento propio, sirve como base para establecer las posibilidades que tiene la técnica (...) en el desarrollo de nuevas formas de relación con el medio ambiente. ABSTRACT The paper inquires into the problem of the technological exploitation of the world on the basis of Xavier Zubiri's and Georges Canguilhem's thought. It examines Zubiri's analysis of human intelligence and Canguilhem's thesis regarding the primordial nature of technological activity, its relation to science, and its role in the normativity of the organism. In both authors, the term Umwelt, translated as "surrounding-world" or behavioral environment, serves as the basis to establish the possibilities of technology in developing new forms of relationship with the environment. (shrink)

This paper aims at giving an account of the philosophy of norms of Georges Canguilhem in the framework of his philosophical vitalism. According to Canguilhem, vitalism is not a metaphysical or ontological theory, but rather a general attitude or a perspective about life and living beings, both understood employing the axiological concept of ‘normativity’. This notion allows Canguilhem to enlarge the concept of life beyond the field of biological phenomena, encompassing also phenomena of the social world, included technique and scientific (...) knowledge and rationality. Canguilhem’s perspective relocates human activities within a vitalistic conception of life, which redefines the meaning of human reason by putting it in relation to values and norms. (shrink)

This paper considers the theoretical circumstances that urged Michel Foucault to analyse modern societies in terms of biopower. Georges Canguilhem’s account of the relations between science and the living forms an essential starting point for Foucault’s own later explorations, though the challenges posed by the molecular revolution in biology and François Jacob’s history of it allowed Foucault to extend and transform Canguilhem’s philosophy of error. Using archival research into his 1955–1956 course on “Science and Error,” I show that, for Canguilhem, (...) it is inauthentic to treat a living being as an error, even if living things are capable of making errors in the domain of knowledge. The emergent molecular biology in the 1960s posed a grave challenge, however, since it suggested that individuals could indeed be errors of genetic reproduction. The paper discusses how Canguilhem and Foucault each responded to this by examining, among other texts, their respective reviews of Jacob’s The Logic of the Living. For Canguilhem this was an opportunity to reaffirm the creativity of life in the living individual, which is not a thing to be evaluated, but the source of values. For Foucault, drawing on Jacob’s work, this was the opportunity to develop a transformed account of valuation by posing biopower as the DNA of society. Despite their disagreements, the paper examines these three authors as different iterations of a historical epistemology attuned to errancy, error, and experimentation. (shrink)

Resumo: Assim como o neokantismo, a fenomenologia e a filosofia analítica, também a epistemologia histórica francesa teve sua emergência no contexto da crise das ciências, na virada para o século XX. Por seus desdobramentos particulares, as obras de Gaston Bachelard e de Georges Canguilhem romperam, cada uma a seu modo, respectivamente com o neokantismo representado por Brunschvicg e por Alain. Neste artigo, propõe-se retirar algumas consequências epistemológicas, éticas e políticas dessas duas rupturas, analisando brevemente as particularidades de cada um dos (...) dois casos.: As well as neo-Kantianism, phenomenology and analytical philosophy, French historical epistemology also had its emergence in the context of the crisis of the sciences at the turn of the 20th century. Due to their own developments, the works of Gaston Bachelard and Georges Canguilhem broke, each in its path, respectively with the neo-Kantianism represented by Brunschvicg and by Alain. In this article, we propose to draw some epistemological, ethical, and political consequences of these two ruptures, briefly analyzing the particularities of each of the two cases. (shrink)

Many historical studies tend to underline two central Kantian themes frequently emerging in Georges Canguilhem’s works: (1) a conception of activity, primarily stemming from the Critique of Pure Reason, as a mental and abstract synthesis of judgment; and (2) a notion of organism, inspired by the Critique of Judgment, as an integral totality of parts. Canguilhem was particularly faithful to the first theme from the 1920s to the first half of the 1930s, whereas the second theme became important in the (...) early 1940s. With this article, I will attempt to show that a third important theme of technique arose in the second half of the 30s also in the wake of Kant’s philosophy, especially Sect. 43 of the Critique of Judgment. This section, which states that technical ability is distinguished from a theoretical faculty, led Canguilhem to a more concrete and practical conception of activity. I will then suggest that it was by considering technique that the concept of normativity, which characterizes Georges Canguilhem’s philosophy of life, also took shape. (shrink)

Our goal in this paper is to reassess the relationship between norms and life by drawing on the philosophy of Georges Canguilhem, particularly some of his unpublished lectures about teratology and sexual determination. First, we discuss the difficulties Canguilhem identified in the introduction of life and sexuality as objects of philosophical reflection. Second, we reassess Canguilhem’s understanding of normativity as rooted in life and the axiological activity of the living. Third, we analyze how Canguilhem drew from past and contemporary teratology (...) to conceive of the notions of anomaly and abnormality. Finally, we reconstruct Canguilhem’s analysis of a case of hermaphroditism, highlighting how he presented it as evidence that sexual determination is the result of a normative choice. One of the key contributions of the paper to scholarly literature on Canguilhem is a better understanding of his notion of choice, which was considered not the conscious and intentional act of a subject but rather an axiological activity of the living. We conclude by positioning Canguilhem’s concept of normativity and his belief that norms are produced by the living in relation to the naturalist/normativist divide in medicine. (shrink)

Este artigo trata do conceito “normatividade biológica” de Georges Canguilhem, historiador e epistemólogo das ciências da vida, a partir de um cotejo crítico com cientistas e temas cruciais da história das ciências naturais contemporâneas. Pesquisadores como Erwin Schrödinger e François Jacob, entre outros, e temas como ordem, desordem, entropia, neguentropia, catálise e outros. Tal cotejo, além de esclarecer e situar a noção de normatividade, subsidiou uma reflexão a respeito da origem, do regime e do destino da vida, em uma palavra, (...) de sua vitalidade. Como resultado, foi possível sua consideração em uma perspectiva estética. Isso encorajou a aplicação do ponto de vista estético ao fazer humano e às suas consequências sociais e, mais do que isso, encorajou uma expectativa, apenas esboçada, de ação política na condição de desvio e de singularidade, vale dizer, enquanto exercício de um estilo normativo de vida em sociedade. (shrink)