Histoire du système immunitaire : immunologie et médecine (1880-1984)

History of the immune system. Immunology and medicine (1880-1984)

• Auteur / Autrice : Anne-Marie Moulin
• Direction : François Dagognet
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Philosophie
• Date : Soutenance en 1986
• Etablissement(s) : Lyon 3

Mots clés

Mots clés contrôlés

Médecine -- Philosophie

Biologie -- Philosophie

Philosophie des sciences

Philosophie et sciences

Résumé

La these retrace les principales etapes de la formation de l'immunologie et soutient l'idee que l'immunologie ne s'est pas developpee comme science autonome avant les annees 60. Malgre les efforts de certains de ses pionniers, entre les deux guerres, l'immunologie s'est trouvee ecartelee entre la serologie medicale et l'immunochimie. La these repose sur deux idees principales : - l'histoire de l'immuno- logie peut etre decrite comme le passage d'un savoir empirique portant sur l'immunite a la science du systeme immunitaire. La notion de systeme immu- nitaire a tout a la fois resolu les impasses conceptuelles de la periode pasteurienne en autorisant une theorie multifactorielle de la causalite en pathogenie et rempli le programme elabore dans les annees 30 par les precurseurs de la biologie moleculaire; - le lien avec la medecine fournit la cle des peripeties de la discipline. La these s'interroge sur les rapports entre biologie et medecine en les envisageant sous l'angle de l'adoption d'un langage commun. Bien que faisant une large part a l'analyse des institutions et des personnalites scientifiques, cette these est une these d'epistemologie appliquee sur la constitution d'un champ scientifique nouveau et les multiples signifi- cations du concept de progres en medecine.

The history of immunology was until recently a meglected field. This thesis is an attempt to redress that neglect by focusing on certain landmarks and to show that immunology as a fully-fledged science developed only in the 1960s. Two central ideas will be explored : - the first is that the history of immunology can be summarized by the shift from an empirical knowledge of immunity to the science of the immune system ; - the second is that the whole history of immunology pivots around its link with medicine. The thesis attempts to argue that immunology only achieved its auto- nomy by focusing on the idea of immune system. This choice epitomized the requirements of the new biology of the 1930s (when molecular biology started), namely emphasis on the holistic approach with the importance it attaches to organization and regulation. General immunology provides a frame work for the interpretation of immunological phenomena in a medical context and elaborates a model of causality which it applies to the understanding of disease. The lusive nature of the historical relationship between biology and medicine is brought here into sharp focus. Medicine usually achieves its so-called revolutions by adopting a new scientific language that enables it to reformulate its scope and reorientate its methods of investigation. The relationship of medicine with biology may be defined as a dialectical linguistic relationship. Using the available material on scientific net- works and institutions, this thesis aims to contribute to applied epistemolo gy and the philosophy of medicine and to promote the linguistic approach to the constitution of a new scientific field, irrespective of the traditional opposition between social and physicochemical sciences, between theoretical and applied sciences.