The Dialectic of Normality and Pathology: From Quantitative (An Epistemological Inquiry Positivism to Bionormativity)

Abstract

 For a long time, the biological sciences remained subject to the quantitative positivist approach based on experimentation and natural determinism, which reduced disease to merely a “quantitative change” or a statistical deviation from the normal average of the functions of organs, as was manifested in the theses of the pioneer of experimental medicine, Claude Bernard. This is what prompted Georges Canguilhem to reconsider the fundamental concepts of medical sciences and biology through criticizing the positivist approach and presenting new conceptions regarding how to approach vital and medical concepts, where medicine was no longer merely a therapeutic technique, but rather became a subject of philosophical and epistemological questioning. Hence, the problematic can be formulated as follows: how does biological normativity in Canguilhem become a tool for destabilizing the traditional concepts in the epistemology of medicine? And how did the idea of values contribute to the development of medicine in particular and the biological sciences in general? And what is the epistemological value of vital philosophy in light of the biotechnological revolution and digital transformations? We concluded by saying that Canguilhem founded a new epistemology in the field of biology based on the philosophy of biological normativity, which liberated biology from the dominance of experimental quantitative positivism, and which opened new horizons for investigating the problem of values or bioethics in light of scientific developments and digital transformations.