Abstract

Despite recent efforts, little research has been done concerning the issue of medical ethics in Georges Canguilhem’s work. This is mainly due to the critical position the author takes regarding the humanistic medicine practices that began to proliferate after World War II. However, we hold that the medical philosopher´s insights do contribute to the field of medical ethics, since they rescue the patients’ individuality, which is highly valued in today´s person centered medicine: over the “objectifying” rationality of modern medicine. We also propose that Canguilhem poses an “interactive” understanding of human life that goes beyond a reductionistic vision of life and which allows the development of an ethical subject capable of producing new norms.