“Scientific ideology is a concept articulated by Canguilhem in the late 1960s, inspired by the writings of Foucault and Althusser, as well as by the discussions they raise regarding the relationships between ideology and the sciences. This concept is developed during his lectures at the Sorbonne, where he continues to use it as the foundation of his teaching until 1978 [...].

The final version of this text is included in his book Idéologie et rationalité dans l’histoire des sciences de la vie (1977). There, he presents studies focused on specific historical examples, concerning the explicit or implicit role that not only theories and concepts claiming scientific validity but also philosophical, political, economic, and social ideas and ideologies play in the evolution of biomedicine.

Scientific ideology is defined as a non-science, that is, an imperfect knowledge of temporary duration, with erroneous, retrospective, but also disprovable a posteriori characteristics, which aspires to acquire the epistemological status of a science by attempting to mimic its example. Thus, scientific ideology is constituted through theories and concepts that diverge from those defined by a science, which it explores and applies at different and divergent levels from this science.” Eustathios Veltzos, Excerpt from the Introduction of the book