Canguilhem, Ruyer and Simondon - A Philosophy of Life Sciences à la Française

这篇论文将考察欧洲大陆科学哲学中一个迄今未知的‘时刻’：20世纪中期的法国生物学思想，它由哲学和新生心理生物科学之间独特而富有成效的交流组成。在这样做的同时，它将有助于在当今不断扩大的“生命”的学术问题化中采取批判性的方法，在自然和人类系统面临的多重挑战的推动下，发起了呼吁引导当代“生物学转向”远离狭隘的科学主义对生命和意识的接触，取而代之的是科学、艺术和人文之间的联盟。我的研究将展示法国哲学中的这一时期如何为这样一个联盟在今天应该是什么样子提供关键教训。这篇论文将是对法国哲学家乔治·坎吉尔姆、雷蒙德·鲁耶和吉尔伯特·西蒙登的首次比较分析。在几十年的时间里(1940-1970)，他们积极应对生命科学的进步。我认为，在这些活动中，出现了一种原始的生命形而上学，作为一种类似于法国的生命科学哲学，哲学思想和科学知识之间的创新联系位于重新定义物质、生物和精神现实之间关系的核心。将哲学史方法与对哲学和科学概念的深入解释相结合，论文将首先展示生命科学和哲学之间独特的富有成效的交流如何塑造了20世纪初的法国哲学。然后，它将解开坎吉尔姆、鲁耶和西蒙登的广泛奖学金，揭示每个人是如何发展出一个中心生物学取向的。第三，它将考察三位哲学家如何围绕重塑生命科学的唯物主义一元论和生命二元论的传统，导致一种特殊的基于生命的形而上学一元论。最后，它将展示这个法国生物哲学框架对日益自我批判和具有哲学意识的当代生物认知科学中对生命的重新质询所做出的宝贵贡献。

This thesis will examine a heretofore uncharted 'moment' in continental philosophy of science: mid 20th- century French biological thought, which consisted of a uniquely fecund exchange between philosophy and nascent psycho-biological sciences. In doing so, it will contribute to critical approaches within today's expanding scholarly problematisation of 'life' which, spurred on by multiple challenges to natural and human systems, have launched calls that the contemporary 'biological turn' be steered away from a narrowly scientistic engagement with life and consciousness and an alliance between the sciences, arts, and humanities be embraced instead. My research will demonstrate how this period in French philosophy provides key lessons for what such an alliance should look like today.The thesis will be a first-time comparative analysis of French philosophers Georges Canguilhem, Raymond Ruyer and Gilbert Simondon. Over several decades (1940-1970), they actively reckoned with advancements in life sciences. I contend that an original metaphysics of life qua philosophy of life sciences à la française emerged during those engagements, with an innovative association between philosophical thought and scientific knowledge lodged at the heart of redefining the relation between material, biological and mental realitiesCombining a history of philosophy approach with in-depth interpretation of philosophical and scientific concepts, the thesis will first show how a uniquely productive exchange between life sciences and philosophy shaped French philosophy at the dawn of the 20th century. It will then unpack Canguilhem's, Ruyer's and Simondon's wide-ranging scholarships, revealing how each developed a central biological orientation. Third, it will examine how the three philosophers converged around refashioning both the materialist monism of life sciences and the tradition of vitalist dualism, resulting in a special kind of life-based and metaphysical monism. Finally, it will demonstrate the invaluable contributions this French bio-philosophical framework makes to increasingly self-critical and philosophically-minded contemporary re-interrogations on life within bio-cognitive sciences.