Georges Canguilhem y la Epistemología Histórica

The movement that is currently called Historical Epistemology has as one of its main precursors the French philosopher Georges Canguilhem, who together with Gaston Bachelard understood that science cannot be understood except in the historical context in which it develops. This article proposes to present two key concepts in Canguilhem's thought that define him as a thinker of the first period of Historical Epistemology in the French sphere. These ideas are the virus of the precursor and the notion of chance in science. The first concept indicates that the history of science is not a mere line where the truth is revealed little by little, by virtue of great discoverers, and in which the same idea finds antecedents in other cultural, social and epistemic contexts. On the other hand, we find the notion of chance in science, which, for Canguilhem, is an idea that tends to sweeten discoveries or scientific proposals, disguising them as fortuitous.