On the genealogy of concepts and experimental practices: Rethinking Georges Canguilhem’s historical epistemology

The importance given by historian and philosopher of science Georges Canguilhem (1904–1995) to the role of practice, techniques, and experimentation in concept-formation was largely overlooked by commentators. After placing Canguilhem’s contributions within the larger history of historical epistemology in France, and clarifying his views regarding this expression, I re-evaluate the relation between concepts and experimental practices in Canguilhem’s philosophy of science. Drawing on his early writings on the relations between science and technology in the 1930s, on the Essai sur quelques problèmes concernant le normal et le pathologique (1943), and on La formation du concept de réflexe aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (1955), I argue that the formation and rectification of concepts in Canguilhem’s sense are intrinsically bound with the experimental, material, technical, and cultural contexts in which concepts are operationalized.

► Discusses introduces the received view of Canguilhem’s philosophy of science.
► Provides an account of the history of historical epistemology in France.
► Examines Canguilhem’s pre-1960s writings on concepts and experimental practices.
► Concludes that for Canguilhem concept formation and experimentation belong together.