Canguilhem and Continental Philosophy of Biology (History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences, 31)

This edited volume presents papers on this alternative philosophy of biology that could be called “continental philosophy of biology,” and the variety of positions and solutions that it has spawned. In doing so, it contributes to debates in the history and philosophy of science and the history of philosophy of science, as well as to the craving for ‘history’ and/or ‘theory’ in the theoretical biological disciplines. In addition, however, it also provides inspiration for a broader image of philosophy of biology, in which these traditional issues may have a place. The volume devotes specific attention to the work of Georges Canguilhem, which is central to this alternative tradition of “continental philosophy of biology”. This is the first collection on Georges Canguilhem and the Continental tradition in philosophy of biology. The book should be of interest to philosophers of biology, continental philosophers, historians of biology and those interested in broader traditions in philosophy of science. Canguilhem and Continental Philosophy of Biology Copyright Contents Introduction 1 Introduction References Part I: Biophilosophical Backgrounds: Faultlines and Forerunners Analytic and Continental Approaches to Biology and Philosophy: David Hull and Marjorie Grene on ‘What Philosophy of Biology Is Not’ 1 Introduction 2 Marjorie Grene and David Hull Contrasted 3 Contested Origin Stories About the Philosophy of Biology 4 Writing ‘What Philosophy of Biology Is Not’ (WPOBIN) 5 Philosophy of Biology Versus Biological Philosophy, or Hull Against Grene 6 Conclusion References All Knowledge Is Orientation: Marjorie Grene’s Ecological Epistemology 1 Introduction 2 Grene’s Intellectual Biography 3 History of Philosophy 4 Philosophy of Biology 5 Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Philosophical Anthropology Bibliography Abbreviations for Works by Grene Works by Grene Works by Others “Dilettantes of Life.” Franco-German Refractions of Anthropogenesis in Twentieth Century Philosophy 1 Philosophical Biology Vs. Biological Philosophy 2 The Sources. Klaatsch, Alsberg, Bolk 3 Philosophical Anthropology between an Anthropology of need and an Anthropology of Desire 3.1 Gehlen 3.2 Scheler 3.3 Plessner 4 Fractionaries of an Anthropology of Desire from Lack. The French Constellation, with an Exemplary Focus on Jacques Lacan 5 Conclusion References Part II: Canguilhem’s Philosophy of Biology “Unknown Material”? Georges Canguilhem, French Philosophy and Medicine 1 Introduction 2 Matter/Material, Concrete 3 Different Material: Sociology or Psychology 4 Medicine References Life, Concept and Purpose: The Organism as a Connection in Kant’s Critical Philosophy and Georges Canguilhem’s Historical Epistemology 1 Life, Concept and Organic Knowledge in Kant and Canguilhem 2 Organism and Purpose from Kant’s Pre-Critical Writings to the Opus Postumum 2.1 The Organism in the Pre-Critical Writings and in the CPR 2.2 The Organism in the CJ 2.3 The Organism in the OP 3 Biological Individuality and Organism in Georges Canguilhem’s Philosophy 4 Conclusion References Canguilhem’s Divided Subject: A Kantian Perspective on the Intertwinement of Logic and Life 1 Introduction 2 The Concept and Life: From Ontology to Epistemology, via Logic 3 Aristotle’s Paradigm: The Primacy of the Individual 4 The Life of the Concept: Kant’s Logical Horizon and the Regulativity of the Principle of Purposiveness 5 From Kant’s Critique to Hegel’s Aristotelianism 6 Is Logic Intrinsic to Life, or Does Life Disconcert Logic? Towards Life as Dissatisfaction 7 The Divided Subject’s Broken Judgment 8 The Desire to Find the True Is What Invents It. On Logic’s Needs 9 Conclusion References Knowledge, Life, and Error. Nietzschean Themes in the Work of Georges Canguilhem References Neither Angel Nor Beast: Life and/Versus Mind in Canguilhem and Merleau-Ponty 1 Mind-Life Problem: Between Transcendentalism and Life Philosophy 2 Reflexive Scientist: Circularity Between Life and Mind 3 Dialectical Ferment: Vital Normativity 4 Not an Angel: On Praktognosia 5 Nor a Beast: On Symbolic Behaviour 6 Living Minds, Minded Lives: The Relation of Foundation References Works by Canguilhem and Merleau-Ponty (Abbreviations): Other sources: Canguilhem and the Promise of the Flesh 1 Introduction 2 Phenomenology’s Romance of the Flesh 3 Canguilhem on Embodied Experience 4 Canguilhem and the garde-fou of Scientific Truth 5 Conclusion References Part III: Beyond Canguilhem What Is Biological Normativity? 1 Introduction 1.1 A Physiological Constant Is Not an Invariant 1.2 Physiology and Pathology 1.3 Propulsive and Repulsive Constants 1.4 An Extended Definition of Closure? References Self-Organizing Life: Michel Serres and the Problem of Meaning 1 Introduction 2 Serres and Canguilhem 2.1 Serres as an Isolated Philosopher 2.2 Serres and Althusserianism 3 Another Biophilosophy Is Possible 3.1 The New New Scientific Spirit 3.2 Henri Atlan and the Problem of Meaning 4 A Biophilosophy Without a Subject 4.1 The Scapegoat as Self-Organization 4.2 Science as Order Out of Noise 5 Conclusion References French Philosophy of Technology and Technoscience: A Study on the Mode of Existence of Bio-objects 1 A New Philosophical Object: What Is a Technoscientific Object? 2 Philosophy of Technology and Biotechnologies: What Technoscientific Object Is the Bio-object? 3 A Simondonian Ontology of Technical Objects: How to Redefine Bio-objects? References A Bergsonian Perspective on Causality and Evolution 1 The Bergsonian Criticism of the Hidden Finalism of the Theories of Evolution 2 Understanding the élan vital 3 Topicality of the élan vital 4 The Lessons of the élan vital on the Causality in Evolution References