An introduction to the medical epistemology of Georges Canguilhem: moving beyond Michel Foucault

Abstract

Although American philosophers and physicians are generally familiar with the writings of Claude Bernard (1813-1878), especially his Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), the medical epistemology of Georges Canguilhem, born in 1904, is virtually unknown in English speaking nations. Although indebted to Bernard for his conception of the methods to be employed in the acquisition of medical knowledge, Canguilhem radically reformulates Bernard's concepts of 'disease', 'health', 'illness', and 'pathology'. Contemporary exhortations to medical professionals and medical students that they "pay more attention to the whole patient" take on significance in working through the writings of Canguilhem; of crucial importance is the relation that obtains between a patient's unique symptomatology and the proper drug regiment that is required.