168 RüdigerKunow
rationalization, the essential lay... in a technique of establishing or
restoring the normal.. ." (34). In an extended historical analysis,
Canguilhem then traces the steps by which medicine, but also biology
and the social sciences, progressively subjected the human nature to
norms—not just for description and registration but for more material
purposes,augmentingtheinstitutionalandpoliticalpoweroverlife.This
istheframeworkinwhichhesituatesvitalorbiologicalnormativities.
Even though Canguilhem's normal/pathological binary introduces
interestinghistoricalmaterialonhowthebiologyofthehumanbodyhas
been harnessed to social and political interests, it is his methodological
decision to position the origin and determination of norms squarely
withinsocialsystemsofpreferenceandprivilegethatmakeshisworkso
important for reflections on non-normative forms of human life.
Throughout, Canguilhem inserts the binary of the normal and the
pathological into a larger framework of normative relations or
interrelatedness.^15 He calls this the "correlativity of norms" (249):
"Normsare relative to each other in a system, at least potentially. Their
correlativity within a social system tends to make this system an
organization,thatis,aunityinitself,ifnotbyitselfandforitself"(249-
50).Whatthismeansisthatthesettingupofnormsinonefieldofsocial
or cultural praxis interacts with and depends on norms working in
anotherfield.Wethereforeneverencounternorms(ortheyus)singlyor
one at a time. Rather, they interact with and reinforce one another. In a
terminology introduced above, one can instead of "correlativity" also
speak of clusters of cognate norms or of the intersectionality of social
and cultural discrimination discussed in the introduction. This
correlativity,orwhatIcalledthe"clusterofnormativity,"isessentialfor
the reproduction of both the norms themselves and the cultural system
which they support. In addition, it is this enmeshed, networked,
(^15) Even though Canguilhem's binary shows an obvious kinship with the hoary
binaries of French structuralism, it is not restricted to a formal ordering of the
differences it describes. Rather, Canguilhem emphasizes repeatedly the
interactive,evenmutuallydependentrelationofthenormalandthepathological.
Cf. the discussion in Mol, Annemarie. "Lived Reality and the Multiplicity of
Norms: a Critical Tribute to George Canguilhem."Economy and Society27.3
(1998):274-84.Print.