"Reflecting on the implications of the revolution
under way in the molecular biology of the 1950s
and early 1960s, Canguilhem identified a shift in
the epistemology of biology. The definition of life
as organization, Canguilhem claimed in 1966, lost
ground to a new conception: life as information.
Today, this conception has not been totally discredited,
to be sure, but its limits have nonetheless
become apparent. The accumulation of genomic
information has not led to immediate biological
insight. The very epistemic status of genomic information
is currently shifting from an end to a means
of research: in post-genomic biology genome
sequences are used as giant reference tools.
Research, moreover, increasingly pays attention to
complex interactions across multiple scales. The
past decade, finally, has witnessed an intensification
of the experimental bent of biological inquiry.
Reflecting on the implications of the conceptualization
of life as information, Canguilhem was
referring to a series of early successes in the
endeavor of molecular biology. He was not referring
to a particular science when he claimed that
mankind makes mistakes when it chooses the
wrong spot for receiving the kind of knowledge it
is after. Clearly, that knowledge is only partially to
be found by way of the molecularization of life.
Today, biologists are experimenting with a broad
range of spots so as to turn genomic information
into biological knowledge. Contemporary inflections
of the biologization of life are nothing but an
attempt to move things around, once again, in a
different manner, so as to flourish and survive.
History has moved on, and history will continue to
move on – and so should our inquiries. Nonetheless,
Canguilhem’s project remains relevant if it is
taken as what it was meant to be: a reviving invitation
to investigate the unexpected emergence of
objects and the unpredictable reconfiguration of
forms as they assemble into an ever-shifting understanding
of life."
- Rabinow P., Caduff C. "Life – After Canguilhem"
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