La montre et l'univers : metaphores et modeles de la societe (de j.-j. rousseau a d. durkheim)
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Paris 7Disciplines:
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Abstract EN:
Sociological metaphors (society as an organism, a machine, a theatre, etc. ) were sometimes used as models : thus the dramatic progress of both watch-making and astronomy in the mid-18th century inspired philosophers when trying to found a science of the "social system". J. - j. Rousseau's social contract (1762) follows the pattern of a watch (regulator, wheels, mail spring) to arrange his notions of "sovereignty", "government" and "state" in a "machine" which the "legislator", as a watch-maker of the time, will only design, leaving it to the others to assemble it. In the same way, adam smith's theory of moral sentiments (1759) uses "sympathy" as newton used "attraction" : the "agent", the "object" and the "spectator", engaged in a kind of "conversation" based on the "suitable" expression of passions, view each other in a "perspective" somewhat similar to the system of earth, moon, and sun, where the "impartial spectator" plays the part of the invisible "center of gravity". However, in the 19th century, sociologists like e. Durkheim were deceived by a renewed scientific environment and a conquering biology, and lost the ability of telling the metaphor from the model, when reading their 18th century predecessors.
Abstract FR:
Les metaphores de la societe (organisme, machine, theatre, etc. ) ont parfois joue un role de modele. Ainsi, au milieu du xviiie siecle, les progres de l'horlogerie et de l'astronomie inspirerent les philosophes dans leur tentative de fonder la science du "systeme social". Le contrat social de j. -j. Rousseau (1762) place le "souverain", le "gouvernement" et l'"etat" dans le meme rapport que le regulateur, le rouage et le ressort moteur d'une montre, tandis que le "legislateur" comme un maitre-horloger, concoit une "machine" que d'autres executeront parallelement, la theorie des sentiments moraux d'a. Smith (1759) donne a la "sympathie" le role que newton attribuait a l'attraction dans l'univers : l'"agent", l'"objet" et le "spectateur", engages dans une relation de "conversation" ou doit regner la "convenance" des sentiments, sont dans un rapport de "perspective" analogue, sur certains points, au systeme terre / lune / soleil, tandis que la figure imaginaire du "spectateur impartial" joue le role de "centre de gravite" du jugement. Mais les sociologues du xixe siecle, par exemple e. Durkheim, trompes par un nouveau contexte scientifique et technique, seduits par les progres de la biologie, ne sauront plus distinguer les metaphores et les modeles des pionniers du xviiie siecle.