A Vital Rationalist - Selected Writings from Georges Canguilhem

Georges Canguilhem is one of France's foremost historians of science. Trained as a medical doctor as well as a philosopher, he combined these practices to demonstrate to philosophers that there could be no epistemology without concrete study of the actual development of the sciences and to historians that there could be no worthwhile history of science without a philosophical understanding of the conceptual basis of all knowledge. A Vital Rationalist brings together for the first time a selection of Canguilhem's most important writings, including excerpts from previously unpublished manuscripts and a critical bibliography by Camille Limoges.

Feint of Art

Every chapter begins with an excerpt from a book by grandfather Georges about his life as an art forger. If you want, these can draw you into all kinds of philosophical speculations about the nature of truth and illusion (why artwork created today less valuable than one created centuries ago and why is a forgery from 137BC in the Brock museum while Georges's forgeries aren't?). Or you can just enjoy the suspense and the laugh out loud moments (like when poor Annie gets stuck in a window, which is much funnier in the novel than in a review). And in a postscript you can learn how to try Annie's faux finishing methods at home.

George Kranky, a small boy who lives on a farm with his mother, father and grandmother, is fed up of his Grandma's selfishness, grumpiness and her attitude towards him. George seeks to cure it by brewing a special medicine to cure her (made from every harmful product in the house, and several animal medicines from his father's shed), only to end up making his Grandma as tall as a house. While this does not improve her disposition, it does make her happier. George's father Mr. Killy Kranky (a farmer) and mother come home; when the father sees the giant hen (produced by the medicine given to the hen to prove to Grandma that the reason she is that huge is because of his medicine, although this attempt is failed), he is excited while the mother is first in shock and then starts to ignore the grandmother.

George Kranky, a small boy who lives on a farm with his mother, father and grandmother, is fed up of his Grandma's selfishness, grumpiness and her attitude towards him. George seeks to cure it by brewing a special medicine to cure her (made from every harmful product in the house, and several animal medicines from his father's shed), only to end up making his Grandma as tall as a house. While this does not improve her disposition, it does make her happier. George's father Mr. Killy Kranky (a farmer) and mother come home; when the father sees the giant hen (produced by the medicine given to the hen to prove to Grandma that the reason she is that huge is because of his medicine, although this attempt is failed), he is excited while the mother is first in shock and then starts to ignore the grandmother.