G. Canguilhem, reader of Politzer: on the problem of action, practical philosophy and psychology as a concrete science

Abstract

This article analyzes the repercussions of G. Politzer's thought on the philosophy of life elaborated by G. Canguilhem. During the first thirty years of the twentieth century, Politzer's texts provide important material for the construction of the philosophy that Canguilhem builds on human individuality and its autonomy. The reading of Politzer constitutes for Canguilhem a motive of inspiration for his axiological, moral and political proposals. By associating the ideas of the concrete psychology that encapsulates the existence of man-actor, Canguilhem reconciles two series of arguments: a). the philosophy of life cannot do without an approach to human action; b). the presence of human action becomes inseparable from the assumptions that debate its existence between the singularity of its productions, and the apprehension that can be made of it by means of the universals that are proposed by science.