Des Institutions en Personne: Une sociologie pragmatique en dialogue avec Paul Ricœur

Authors

  • Laurent Thévenot EHESS et Fonds Ricoeur

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/errs.2012.136

Keywords:

Institution, Engagement, Pragmatism, Justice, Politics

Abstract

French so-called sociologie pragmatique is indebted to Ricœur's philosophy on several points. After recalling them, the article focuses on the political and moral sociology which initiated this pragmatist turn. The dialogue with Ricœur firstly developed around theories of justice (Rawls, Walzer, Boltanski and Thévenot) and the author considers its main outlines: pluralism, the legitimacy of judgment, the recognition of authority, politics. A second part of the article builds on the continued relations resulting from the author's new developments of the sociology of engagements. Referring to "Le socius et le prochain" by Ricœur, and relying on sociological observations, the author addresses the issue of institutions and policies expected to become more user-friendly. He confronts the virtue of charity, which Ricœur brings to the fore, to the "art of composition" through which agents are engaged in the good of civic solidarity while engaging in functional tasks and also with the familiar world of personal attachments.

Author Biography

Laurent Thévenot, EHESS et Fonds Ricoeur

Laurent Thévenot is Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris (Groupe de Sociologie Politique et Morale), and Senior researcher at GENES, Paris. He co-authored, with Luc Boltanski, On Justification which analyzes the most legitimate repertoires of evaluation governing political, economic and social relationships. He co-edited with Michèle Lamont Comparing Cultures and Polities: Repertoires of Evaluation in France and the United States and the results of a subsequent Russian-French collaborative comparison which are forthcoming (Des liens du proche aux lieux du public). He recently published a book on theory of action and the plurality of ways human beings engage with the world : L'action au pluriel; sociologie des régimes d'engagement. Laurent Thévenot is co-editor of the journal Annales, Histoire, Sciences Sociales.

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Published

2012-06-25

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Section

Articles