Pragmatism and Sociology

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the sociological debates about pragmatism as well as on the paradoxical uses and criticisms of pragmatism in the two main phases of the French reception of pragmatism, associated on the one hand with Durkheim and on the other with Boltanski and Latour. It shows that just as Durkheim’s criticism of pragmatism is hiding the pragmatist dimensions of his own sociology, Boltanski’s and Latour’s criticisms of Bourdieu should not lead us to forget that Bourdieu’s sociology is pragmatist in many respects. In order to unfold this paradoxical dimension of the French reception of pragmatism, this chapter proposes an analysis of explicit appropriations or criticisms of pragmatist concepts, theses, and arguments in Sorel, Boltanski, and Latour. It also discusses affinities between authors who do not think of themselves as pragmatists, such as Durkheim and Bourdieu, and some theoretical orientations that can be considered pragmatist.

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