Abstract

Experimental molecular medicine has developed into a major scientific discipline. It has during the last 60 years had significant impact on health, and disease, and on the understanding of life. The main aim of this study was to investigate how experimental molecular medicine produces knowledge. Trough a discussion of works of thinkers like Claude Bernard, Georges Canguilhem, Hans-Jörg Rheibnerger and Bruno Latours I develop an understanding of experimental molecular medicine as a hybrid activity. In the knowledge production social, technological and practical factors are intrinsically connected. The second question posed in this work was whether a philosophical reflection over the knowledge production in experimental molecular medicine could lead to self-reflection and a subsequent change of the theory-practice within experimental molecular medicine itself? I suggest that by using Georges Canguilhem's concept of biological normativity it is possible to develop an understanding of how biological systems are constructed to deal with world of dangers, unanticipated events, and environmental variations that make up the life of an organism.