Most contemporary political philosophies are underpinned by compatibilist metaphysics (which combines ontological determinism with practical free will). The present research is a sociological critique of its two major premises. The first premise defends the normative priority of democracy over philosophy: lay opinion enjoys full legitimacy to state what is feasible and what is not regarding principles of justice. The second premise is empirical and claims the universality of the belief in free will. The examination of this second premise begins with the acknowledgement of the limits of a moral sociology based on the mutual attribution of responsibility. From there, the program of a critical moral sociology is defined anew as aiming at the explanation of the social mechanisms that universalize the belief in free will and in responsibility. A quantitative study follows, comparing that belief as held by students in management with that of students in philosophy and with that of students in sociology. What emerges is that the contagion of some aspects of that belief is related to their social usefulness: part of that belief objectively stems from a dominant social position, yet it is subjectively perceived as its initial cause. It therefore appears that the injunction to moral responsibility attribution, as a mediator of legitimation of the established order, is much less the result of a "psychologizing neoliberal governmentality" than that of the functioning of any hierarchical social structure as a perpetual engine of production of inequalities. The true psychologization is that which, through the injunction to narcissistic display, increases an alleged need for social recognition, by disguising the demand that one conform to the dominant model as an invitation to being different from it, by turning an individual's narcissism into a most highly valued quality and, in the end, by strengthening the belief in the capacity of self-determination. Together, these two injunctions take part in the institution of free will.

The Thinker of the `Primitive Thought' of the Thinkers of `Primitive Thought'

L'institution du libre-arbitre : critique sociale du jugement métaphysique

The main purpose of this chapter is to examine Pierre Bourdieu’s conception of reflexivity. The concept of reflexivity plays a pivotal role in Bourdieu’s attempt to develop a ‘critical sociology’ (sociologie critique), often referred to as ‘reflexive sociology’ in the Anglophone literature. Based on a thorough textual analysis of his key works, the chapter aims to demonstrate that the following twelve elements are particularly important to Bourdieu’s conception of reflexivity: (1) ‘science’, (2) ‘vigilance’, (3) ‘consciousness’, (4) ‘self-awareness’, (5) ‘critique’, (6) ‘self-objectification’, (7) ‘distance-taking’ (8) ‘rupture’, (9) ‘epistemology’, (10) ‘historicization’, (11) ‘understanding’ and (12) ‘emancipation’. Although the concept of reflexivity constitutes a useful methodological tool for the construction of critical epistemologies and for the pursuit of social research, it raises a number of significant questions. It is the task of the final section of this chapter to address several controversial issues that arise when one is faced with the challenge of evaluating the merits of Bourdieu’s account of reflexivity. In accordance with the structure of the foregoing inquiry, these issues are synthesized on the basis of ‘twelve theses on Bourdieu’s conception of reflexivity’.

The Sociological Challenge of Reflexivity in Bourdieusian Thought

Sociology in Greece After 2000: The Discipline in Face of Crises

http://est.sagepub.com/content/2/3/327.full.pdf

EnglishPratical logic The author shows, first, that the attempt to establish an agrarian calendar encompassing ail the information gathered from various informants necessarily leads to contradictions. These are the product of a synoptic representation that synchronizes and treats as a unified whole the results of successive applications of similar, more or less interchangeable generative schemes. Ritual practice is governed by a practical logic (practical in both senses of the word : non-theoretical and convenient). This is a logic of flux of the approximate, of the indetermined, and of the overdetermined, and it is rooted in the schemes of the body. Ritual mimesis brings into play the ambiguity of the basic actions of evereday life (opening-closing, ente ring-leaving, climbing-descending, etc.) in order to integrate symbolically various realms of practice. The logic of ritual is every where because it is really nowhere. Ritual displays a series of logical (and, though imitation,biological) operations of union and separation that enables the society to overcome the contradictions engendered by the mythical classification (diacrisis). For example, the agrarian year witnesses an opposition between, on the one hand, the "pure" periods, which are either feminine and moist, like the nights of midwinter, or masculine and dry, like the midsummer dog days, and, on the other hand, the transitional periods, spring and autumn, which are marked by rites de passage aimed at ensuring the masculinization of the feminine and the feminization of the masculine. This structure appears also in the cycle of women's tasks and of culinary practices and in the organisation of the day and of the cycle of life. The application of the same generative schemes to different domains yields homologies that, when pushed beyond their objective limits, i.e., those of practical logic, give rise to contradictions of the kind that thefirst philosophical Systems attempted to overcome. francaisLe sens pratique On montre d'abord que l'effort pour construire un calendrier agraire cumulant toutes les informations recueillies aupres d'informateurs differents conduit a des contradictions necessaires, produites par la representation synoptique qui synchronise et totalise le produit d'applications successives des memes schemes generateurs approximativement substituables. La pratique rituelle obeit a une logique pratique (au double sens), logique du flou (fuzzy-logic), de l'approximatif, de l'indetermine et du sur -determine, qui s'enracine dans les schemes corporels. La mimesis rituelle joue de l'ambiguite des actions fondamentales (ouvrir-fermer, entrer-sortir, monter-descendre, etc.) pour integrer symboliquement des univers de pratique differents. La logique est partout parce qu'elle n'est vraiment nulle part. Le rituel realise une serie d'operations logiques (et mimetiquement biologiques) d'union et de separation qui permettent de surmonter les contradictions engendrees par le classement mythique (diacrisis). Ainsi dans l'annee agraire s'opposent les periodes "pures", feminines et humides; comme les nuits du plein hiver, ou masculines et seches comme la canicule du plein ete, et les periodes de transition, printemps et automne, marquees par des rites de passage visant a assurer la masculinisation du feminin ou la feminisation du masculin. Cette structure se retrouve dans le cycle des travaux feminins et de la cuisine, l'organisation de la journee et du cycle de vie. Il suffit de vouloir pousser au-dela de leurs limites objectives, celles de la logique pratique, les homologies qui resultent de l'application des memes schemes generateurs a des domaines differents pour voir surgir des contradictions du type de celles que les premiers systemes philosophiques ont essaye de surmonter et avec lesquelles se battent toutes les constructions ideologiques. DeutschDie praktische Logik Man kann anfangs zeigen, dass die Bemuhungen um die Zusammenstellung eines Bauernkalenders, der alle Information en von verschiedenen Informatoren beinhaltet, notwendigerweise Wider-spruche beinhaltet, die durch die synoplische Darstellung hervorgerufen sind, die aufeinanderfolgende Anwendungen gleicher, und ungefahr substituierbarer Schemen in ein Produkt zusammenfasst und synchronisiert. Die rituelle Praxis gehorcht einer praktischen Logik (im doppelten Sinne), einer Logik des Unklaren (fuzz-logic)t des Ungefahren, des Unbestimmten oder Uberbe-stimmten, die ihre Wurzeln in den korperlichen Verhaltensschemen hat. Die rituelle Mimesis spielt mit der Doppeldeutigkeit grundlegender Handlungen (offnen - schliessen, eintreten - austreten, aufsteigen - absteigen, etc.), um symbolisch die Lebens-kreise verschiedener Praktiken zu vereinen. Die Logik ist Uber-all, da sie nirgendwo wirklich ist. Das Ritual verwirklicht eine Reihe logischer Operationen (und mimetisch biologischer Operationen) der Vereinigung und Trennung, die es erlauben, jene durch die mythische Klassifizierung (Diacrisis) geschaffenen Widerspruche zu uberwinden. So stehen im Bauernjahr den "reinen" weiblichen und nassen Jahreszeiten, wie den Winternachten, die mannlichen und trockenen, wie den Hundstagen im Sommer, und die Ubergangsperioden Fruhling und Herbst gegenuber, die durch Ubergangsriten gekennzeichnet sind, die die Vermannlichung des Weiblichen uad die Verweiblichung des Mannlichen garantieren sollen. Diese Struktur findet man im Zyklus der Hausfrauen-und Ktichenarbeit wieder, sowie der Organisation des Tages und der Lebenszyklen. Es genugt, diese Homologien, die aus der Anwendung gleicher Schemen auf verschiedene Gebiete entstehen, uber ihre objektiven Grenzen der praktischen Logik hinaustreiben zu wollen, um Widerspruche entstehen zu sehen, die die ersten philosophischen Systeme uberwinden wollten und mit denen sich noch heute alle ideologischen Gebaude auseinandersetzen.

The Thinker of the `Primitive Thought' of the Thinkers of `Primitive Thought'

Citations

L'institution du libre-arbitre : critique sociale du jugement métaphysique

The Sociological Challenge of Reflexivity in Bourdieusian Thought

Sociology in Greece After 2000: The Discipline in Face of Crises

References

Le sens pratique

Les règles de l'art: genèse et structure du champ littéraire

Célibat et condition paysanne

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