Résumés
Many sociological works appear as being particularly illuminating, i.e. as able to explain puzzling social phenomena, because they follow three basic rules common to all scientific disciplines. These rules are at the root of the sociological paradigm becoming popular today in Europe under the label “analytical sociology”. But they identify a stream of sociological research that appeared notably with Weber’s and Durkheim’s work. These three rules are to a great extent responsible for the scientific strength of their respective work. They are crucial notably as far as the sociological explanation of collective beliefs, both representational and normative, is concerned, as examples drawn from the work of classical and modern social scientists illustrate. A special attention will be given to the beliefs that give a strong feeling of strangeness and for this reason were explored by many sociologists and anthropologists, as the beliefs in the efficiency of magical rituals.
Nombre de travaux sociologiques sont d’autant plus éclairants qu’ils se montrent capables d’expliquer des phénomènes sociaux énigmatiques en s’attachant à suivre trois règles communes à toutes les disciplines scientifiques. Ces règles sont à la racine du paradigme popularisé aujourd’hui en Europe sous l’étiquette de la « sociologie analytique ». Cependant, elles identifient un courant de recherche illustré en particulier par les œuvres de Weber et de Durkheim. Ces trois règles sont en effet largement responsables de la puissance scientifique de leur œuvre respective. Elles s’avèrent cruciales dès lors qu’il s’agit d’expliquer des croyances collectives, tant représentationnelles que normatives, ainsi que l’illustrent des exemples tirés de l’œuvre de sociologues classiques et modernes. On accordera une attention particulière aux croyances provoquant un fort sentiment d’étrangeté, comme celles relatives à l’efficacité des rituels magiques, qui furent pour cette raison explorées par de nombreux sociologues et anthropologues.
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Plan
1. Methodological singularism
2. Classical sociologists endorsed methodological singularism
3. Methodological individualism
4. Comprehension as an open conception of rationality
5. Networks and the Generalized others
6. Illustrations
6.1. Representational beliefs
6.2. Beliefs in the efficiency of magical ritualas a product of ordinary rationality
6.3. Normative beliefs
6.4. Feelings of fairness
6.5. Income tax
6.6. Long term evolution as a product of ordinary rationality
6.7. Solving RCT deadlocks
7. At the root of “Analytical sociology”
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In the 1980’s a book on sociology had a tremendous success in sociological circles, Wolf Lepenies’ Drei Kulturen (1985). It was quickly translated into the main European languages. It defended two theses: that sociology is neither science nor literature, but a “third culture” and that the great classical sociologists had been wrong when they maintained that sociology could be a science as any other. But the book was possibly inspired by the actual state of sociology at the time when it was published, in the 1980’s, for, at that time, two trends in the social sciences, constructivism and structuralism, drew a great deal of attention, but had diametrically opposed orientations: skepticism inspired constructivism, while scientism inspired structuralism. Today, a new cycle seems to me to be opened with the birth of the so-called “analytical sociology” (see e.g. Hedström, 2005; Manzo, 2010).
A comment on the back of the collective book edited by Pierre Demeulenaere under the title Analyti...
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Référence électronique
Raymond Boudon, « “Analytical sociology” and the explanation of beliefs », Revue européenne des sciences sociales [En ligne], 50-2 | 2012, mis en ligne le 01 janvier 2016, consulté le 24 mai 2013. URL : http://ress.revues.org/2165 ; DOI : 10.4000/ress.2165
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