Georges Canguilhem and the development of Brazilian Public Heatlh field

Abstract

Historical epistemology has played an important role in the development of modern Brazilian Public Health or “Saúde Coletiva” (Collective Health). Born as an academic search for new conceptual foundations of a social committed field of scientific knowledge, as well as a social political movement against civil-military dictatorship implanted in Brazil in 1964, the so called Brazilian Sanitary Reform Movement found in the French historical epistemology, particularly in the works of Georges Canguilhem, a powerful ally. This paper aims to revisit the main features of this relationship, focusing in particular the inaugural works of Sergio Arouca and Cecília Donnangelo and the Health Work Process Theory as developed in the Department of Preventive Medicine of the Medical School of the University of São Paulo. The discussion is centered in the way Canguilhem’s philosophical concepts, such as the normative character of life and of its knowledge, the qualitative discontinuity between normal and pathological phenomena and the value oriented definition of health on one hand, and on the other hand, Canguilhem’s historiographical method, focused on the rational development of concepts as the core subject of the historical-epistemological research, the acknowledge of “external” influences over scientific developments, such as social and technological conditions, and the positive role attributed to obstacles, failures and accidents in the progress of a scientific discipline were all crucial to promote the intertwining of the political and academic goals of the Movement and still remain a challenging element for the development of the philosophical and historical reflections of the field of “Saúde Coletiva”.