Epidemiology, Social and Human Sciences and integration of sciences

Abstract

The objective of the article was to broach the problem of integration between epidemiology and human and social sciences, within the context of integration of the sciences. Before the emergence of modern medicine, epidemiology held a worldview that conceived of health and disease processes as integrated with their geographic, historical, economic and social aspects. The dissociation that marked its subsequent development resulted from concepts of the body and disease that were constructed by the life sciences and modern medicine. To reflect on the integration between human and social sciences and epidemiology in relation to their connection with biology, the nature-culture divide inscribed in the development of the sciences needs to be questioned. The concept of normativity of life, proposed by Canguilhem, and the discussion by Bohr on the relationships between atomic physics, biology and unity of knowledge are dealt with from the perspective of reflecting on contemporary challenges for integration among the sciences.