Dalle norme sociali alle norme biologiche. Il normale e il patologico oggi

This contribution examines the relationship between social norms and biological norms in the biomedical era. The first section analyzes the reflections of Georges Canguilhem and Pierre Macherey on the relationship between biological and social norms. While for Canguilhem the two forms of norm appear to be clearly distinct, for Macherey the biological norms of human living beings are intrinsically connected to social norms, insofar as they are always already inscribed within historical situations that structure each individual’s lived experience. In both cases, however, biological norms seem to enjoy a different ontological status, insofar as they are regarded as emanations of Life itself, understood as a pre-human normative activity. The second section proposes an alternative perspective. Biological normativity will be interpreted as a specific form of social normativity, articulated through the statements of the biomedical sciences. From this perspective, the concept of Life is not assumed as a metaphysical reality capable of unfolding a pre-human normativity, but rather as an axiological indicator, historically circumscribable, that orients a specific form of normativity characteristic of the biomedical era. The third section outlines the characteristics of biological normativity by comparing the reflections of Canguilhem and Macherey with the perspectives on the concept of norm developed by Hans Kelsen, Émile Durkheim, and Ernesto De Martino. Through this comparison, the paper seeks to describe a new risk of social homogenization, distinct from the one feared by Canguilhem and deriving from a surreptitious assimilation between adaptation and normality. Biological normativity, through which the individual is conceived as a dynamic organism immersed in an unfaithful environment, appears capable of reconciling individual biological norms with the social imperative of maximizing adaptive capacities. Finally, the last section analyzes the transformations in the relationship between normality and pathology in light of the biological normativity of the biomedical era, drawing on Canguilhem’s reflections on the “pathology of the normal man.” In this way, six peculiar characteristics of biological normativity can be identified: the immediate immanence of norms; man as an antisocial organism; the axiological neutrality of the environment; the moral imperative of Life; the continuum of normality; and the pathology of the normal man.