In his lectures on pragmatism presented in the academic year 1913—14 at the Sorbonne, Durkheim argued that James’s pragmatist theory of truth, due to its emphasis on individual satisfaction, was unable to account for the obligatory, necessary and impersonal character of truth. But for Durkheim to make this charge is only to raise the question whether he himself could account for the morally obligatory or normative character of truth. Although rejecting individualism may be necessary for explaining the existence of norms, (...) it is not sufficient. I argue that Durkheim never succeeded in providing a full account of normativity. Of course, this is a problem that remains unresolved today. Nevertheless, Durkheim took an important step beyond James in recognizing the insufficiency of his individualist account of truth. (shrink)

Le newtonisme moral, à la mode au milieu du XVIIIe siècle, n’est pas seulement une métaphore: en vertu du principe de l’unité de la nature, il postule dans la société une loi semblable à la loi des distances en physique, voire une possibilité de mesure. La même règle d’analogie (A/B = CID) sous-tend le Contrat social de Jean-Jacques Rousseau : en prolongement des métaphores classiques de l’horloge, la définition du gouvernement reproduit l’agencement d’une montre, jusque dans les calculs de proportion (...) qui servent aux horlogers à former le rouage. De même, dans la Théorie des sentiments moraux, Adam Smith se sert de la vieille métaphore de I’ oeil de lesprit et des notions plus modernes de la perspective optique pour agencer en système lensemble des interactions possibles entre deux personnes – hormis l’intérêt – en faisant varier la distance imaginaire entre les protagonistes selon les passions exprimées et leur intensité. Il est important de restituer ces transferts et ces controverses pour comprendre les enjeux fondamentaux de la sociologie au XIXe siècle. (shrink)

This article examines the development of the concept of laicity and its specific application within the French political, social and cultural context. In doing so it contends that, far from being a 'French exception' as is sometimes perceived in the media, laicity in France drew on concepts and practices already in place in other countries at the time of the 1905 legislation separating church and state. The article concludes by asserting a distinction between laicity and secularism, whereby the former emphasises (...) the separation of the roles of state and religion within a nation, whereas the latter refers to the progressive loss of relevance of religion within a culture. The specific definition of laicity has been enshrined in a recent International Declaration of Laicity in the 21st Century. (shrink)

Among anthropologists and sociologists, it is widely believed that moral rules are best understood as a type of social norm. Moral philosophers, however, have largely been hostile to this suggestion. In recent years, the impulse to distinguish moral rules from others types of social norm has received what many take to be empirical support from the work of Elliot Turiel and his collaborators, who have argued that there are two distinct “domains” of social cognition, the “moral” and the “conventional.” Many (...) philosophers have taken this as proof that moral rules are fundamentally different from “conventional” social norms. I argue that moral philosophers should not be relying upon Turiel’s view to defend the moral/conventional distinction. First, I show that Turiel is claiming much less than many have taken him to be claiming, because he puts a lot of what philosophers have traditionally thought of as “morality” on the side of convention, or else in the broad region between the two that he refers to as “multidimensional contexts.” Second, I argue that his concept of the “conventional” is so narrow that the overwhelming majority of social norms – such as the standard rules of etiquette – wind up falling into the “multidimensional” category. This stems from his failure to distinguish between genuine conventions and what I refer to as “norms with conventional elements.”. (shrink)

Is there such a sub-discipline as “sociology of valuation and evaluation”? Identifying the main focus, the topics, and the analytical designs, i.e., reflecting on a theoretical profile of such an investigation, is far from complete. The main question is indeed—where to start when addressing the sociology of valuation and evaluation? Is it a specific area of research, analysis, and inquiry, with specific objects? Should we confine it to the many important qualitative and quantitative studies dedicated to the measure of market (...) performance, the efficiency of public policy, profitability of private investment, or identification of best practices in various areas ? Beyond business and administration processes, a huge body of research in economic sociology has developed in recent years that has renewed the investigations on economic experience through a moral lens (Lamont 2000; Vatin 2008; Karpik 2010; Beckert and Aspe .. (shrink)

This article discusses how the results of infant research challenge the assumptions of the classical sciences of social behaviour. According to A.J. Bergesen, the findings of infant research invalidate Durkheim's theory of mental categories, thus requiring a re-theorizing of sociology. This article argues that Bergesen's reading of Emile Durkheim is incorrect, and his review of the infant research in fact invalidates his argument. Reviewing the assumptions of sociology in the light of the findings of infant research, it is argued that (...) the real challenge is to formulate a research strategy that combines the findings of the two sciences. (shrink)

Résumé. : L’article s’interroge sur la manière dont l’institution scolaire est aujourd’hui mise en question dans son projet de formation par les activités juvéniles, dans une sphère extrascolaire où ils jouissent d’une grande autonomie. Ces activités électives (numériques, musicales, sportives…) réalisent une éducation informelle où les adolescents forgent leur caractère, alors même que l’école n’a plus de modèle lisible de projet éducatif. À partir d’une enquête qualitative réalisée auprès d’une centaine d’adolescents français, on dégagera différentes épreuves qui forment les adolescents (...) dans cette sphère, avant de montrer comment elles mettent en question les finalités, mais aussi les modalités de fonctionnement de l’école. Abstract: This article examines how school is questioned today by youth culture and its activities, especially outside school where teenagers are notably autonomous. These chosen activities (digital music, sports, dance, musical activities ...) could be described as an informal education which tends to build the identity and the self of the youth. From a qualitative survey conducted among a hundred French teenagers, we will first identify different trials teenagers face in this specific sphere, before showing how they are questioning the goals, but also the operating procedures of school. (shrink)