170 RüdigerKunow
reads the binary of the normal and the pathological as an essentially a-
symmetrical relation in which the biological normal asserts its privilege
overwhateveritdismissesasnon-normative.
Thus, in this binary, the meaning of the term "normal" in the life
sciencesalwayscarries with itacertain contentiousedge:"[t]henormal
is not a static or peaceful, but a dynamic and polemical concept which
negatively qualifies.... [It] qualifies what offers resistance to its
application of twisted, crooked, or awkward" (239). In the light of
Canguilhem's observation, all biological variation and diversity can be
said to have a potentially negative if not hostile quality as something
that must be removed, preferably through human intervention. Against
this background, then, therapeutics becomes an expression, if not even
anembodimentofbiologicalnormativity(123).^17
It is Canguilhem's configuration of the Sein/Sollen binary as a
polemicalrelation which next deserves closer scrutiny. To say that the
clusters of normativities have something "polemical" about them pretty
much amounts to saying that there are underlying tensions at work in
biological normalizations, that there is always more involved in
normalizing than marking an average or setting a simple statistical
standard. As I hope to show throughout this chapter, things hardly ever
diseasehasforthesickman—ofbeingreallyanotherwayoflife" (89;emphasis
original). For the present purposes, it is especially the second part of
Canguilhem'sbook,"NewReflectionsontheNormalandthePathological,"that
is relevant for an analytic of the cultural critical edge of norms. Here,
Canguilhem, speaking specifically on the development of industrial (245),
sanitary (245) and juridical (248) norms, dwells at some length on the links
between the emergence of norms and the development of the biomedical
sciences: "'Normal' is the term used by the nineteenth century to designate the
scholasticprototypeandthestateoforganichealth"(237).
(^17) Canguilhem herespeaksofaquality"whichnegativelyqualifiesthesectorof
the given which does not enter into its extension while it depends on its
comprehension" (123). – My discussion of Canguilhem's work is influenced by
Cristina Chimisso's article "The Life Sciences and French Philosophy of
Science: Georges Canguilhem on Norms."New Challenges to Philosophy of
Science. Ed. Hanne Andersen, Dennis Dieks, Wenceslao González, Thomas
Uebel, and Gregory Wheeler. Dordrecht: Springer, 2013. 399-409. Print.; also
by Ian Hacking's "Canguilhem and the Cyborgs."Economy and Society27.2-3
(1998):202-16.Print.