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Social Structures and Natural Systems

Social Interdisciplinarity Set coordinated by

Georges Guille-Escuret

Volume 2


Is a Scientific Assemblage Workable


First published 2018 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley amp Sons Inc

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study or criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 this publication may only be reproduced stored or transmitted in any form or by any means with the prior permission in writing of the publishers or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licenses issued by the CLA Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned address

ISTE Ltd John Wiley amp Sons Inc 27-37 St Georgersquos Road 111 River Street London SW19 4EU Hoboken NJ 07030 UK USA

wwwistecouk wwwwileycom

copy ISTE Ltd 2018 The rights of Georges Guille-Escuret to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988

Library of Congress Control Number 2018954711 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-78630-200-7

Contents

Introduction vii

Chapter 1 Non-Negotiable Conditions for a Scientific Stereoscopy 1

11 Operating principles against metaphysical principles 2 111 Ventriloquist philosophy 3 112 Two materialisms and one idealism the initial bet of science 8 113 Ontology a catch-all concept and a bottomless pit 11

12 A ldquostrong agendardquo for interdisciplinarity 17 121 Popperian demarcation or exclusion decreed from the outside 17 122 Scientific self-management and the requirement of symmetry 20 123 Symmetry and reflexivity in the natureculture couple 24 124 Two modes of interdisciplinarity 30

13 Materialism in the face of the ideal 34 131 The illusory sphere of the ideas 35 132 The three entries on human worlds 41

14 The line drawn on the side of science frame of reference 45 141 The observation of the facts and the strangeness of mathematics 46 142 The permanent priority of the frame of reference 53 143 Scientific clarity and the impurity of scientists 58

15 ldquoReframedrdquo comparison 62

Chapter 2 Relations Above All (and Before Any Cause) 69

21 The power of bonding social relations and ecological interactions 71 22 The polarity of relationship domestication between nature and culture 77

221 The asymmetry of domestication 77 222 Symmetry and reflexivity in domesticators 84 223 Original asymmetry and historical symmetries 91

vi Social Structures and Natural Systems

23 Relations in a process the ldquocausesrdquo for the Neolithic 94 24 Locks and openings 106

241 Robert Cresswellrsquos locks an analysis tool to be imposed 106 242 Palm wine and coffee time is money 109

25 The vintage and the expert 113 251 Hierarchy takes time 115 252 The curse of the Languedoc vineyard 117 253 The oenologist between technocracy and aesthetics 120

Chapter 3 Uncertain Ensembles Imperfect Cohesion and Disruptive Events 129

31 Systems and structures the search 131 311 Empirical or autochthonous ensembles 132 312 The structure and forgotten morphology 135 313 Systems open to all winds 139 314 Generalized structuralism the subject and the event 145

32 The undesirable and sterilized event 152 321 Whitehead versus Braudel 152 322 The rot-proof event at the source of culture 160

33 Events and cohesion in an accelerated Neolithization 165 34 The event a referee for theories 171 35 The forgotten service of the fundamental in favor of the applied 175

Chapter 4 The Spiral of Research Centrifugal and Centripetal Approaches 179

41 Ensembles scales and frameworks methodology versus methods 181 411 The ldquoenrichedrdquo scales 181 412 Inclusions and overlaps among ensembles 184 413 Edges ecotones borders and ruptures 186 414 Complementarities and competitions 191

42 Spiral research from center to periphery or the other way around 194 421 Centrifugal contrasts and centripetal understandings 195 422 The construction of the ecological niche 203 423 Constructions and mosaics 207

43 Solidary comparison and interdisciplinary 213

Conclusion 219

References 225

Index 241

Introduction

The Post-Natural the Post-Cultural and Then What

ldquoThe traditional division that separated a theory from its application was unaware of this need to incorporate the conditions of application into the very essence of the theoryrdquo

Gaston Bachelard1

Going back to a cooperation project between the social sciences and ecology or the relationship between nature and culture as a research object seems rather incongruous in the face of the abundance of texts that resonate behind the solemn and irrevocable refutation of ldquomajor sharingrdquo to begin with it might probably be better to excuse this intention which is paradoxically retrograde due to its progressive character

Nowadays the dream of interdisciplinarity is fading in favor of ldquoindis-ciplinarityrdquo wishing to free itself not only from the shackles of the different disciplines but from discipline itself To hell with procedures protocols and programs let us admire opportunism knighted by the sophisticated term ldquoserendipityrdquo (the unexpected discovery prompted by circumstances) While premeditation may inhibit discovery the unexpected may galvanize it [CAT 13] So be it but does not serendipity risk in the same way as providence keeping us waiting or worse eagerly watching out for it In short a daunting wave of suspicion hovers over science theory and procedure as soon as we step beyond the fortresses protected by sharp technicity [ANI 17]

1 [BAC 02 p 69] First edition published in 1938

viii Social Structures and Natural Systems

and analyze the organization of people or the distribution of living human beings Not only does this defiance challenge one specific science theory or method among others but it attacks the essential arrogance underlying their intrinsic practice Curiously enough nobody wonders whether the sudden hope placed on serendipity could not somehow be related to a general weariness of methods and theories

We are undergoing an avalanche of ldquopostrdquo supposed to draw its energy from the salutary Fall of the Berlin Wall Except that contrary to the Battle of Jericho the wall fell here before the trumpets could sound and glorify a postmodern2 post-historic and post-ideological era With its recent overbid the ineffable post-truth which conditions access to the post-factual paradise (probably a pleonasm since paradise is reputed as relatively calm) In a balance of sterility the ldquopostrdquo prefix seems to proliferate over classical ideas during periods of disappointment whereas optimistic times make the ldquoneordquo prefix teem over recused values In the first case the wise one simulates deliverance from persistent and unknown evil In the second case they intend to correct valuable thought by removing the poison that gnaws at it or by inoculating an additive A ldquopostrdquo here or a ldquoneordquo there are relatively acceptable but when one or the other burst uncontrollably it is worth wondering whether an idle intelligentsia is not attempting to hide its incompetence under hollow proclamations

If we have to capitulate to the formal imperatives of fashion the coming pages will wish to reach the standard of conceptual post-nihilism animated by the hope of recovering neo-scientificity And this effort will be rooted in the same domain which 40 years ago used to elicit the most fervent ambitions of interdisciplinarity under the dual aegis of meticulous method and permanent discussion the whole of the interactions between environments and societies between nature and culture or between ecosystems and social structures

The more it clashes with the context the more the undertaking calls for justification The main explanation states that the philosophical disqualification of the project was never supported by any kind of scientific invalidation which means we have to question ourselves about the increasing permeability of science to the injunctions of metaphysics despite

2 Only in philosophy and humanities in the artistic field the designation is significantly older

Introduction ix

the practical imperatives underlying such a search ten billion human beings submerged under a swarm of dislocated environments in the near future

I1 Choosing between the hegemony of theory and that of technique

The haunting contrast of two personal memories triggered my decision to engage in this counter-flow essay the use of the first person will facilitate this rendering before reframing these memories against a more general context

The first memory a rather bitter one dates back to the mid-1980s as a young researcher with a dual background in zoology and anthropology I had the privilege of attending several round tables or study sessions bringing together a wide range of specialists on the theme ldquoecosystems versus social systemsrdquo with the declared intention to stimulate collaboration between the natural sciences and the social sciences Despite the presence of prestigious specialists of the undoubted sincerity of all participants and of the praiseworthy efforts deployed for hours in order to clarify interdisciplinary ambiguities and to reconcile key concepts all these meetings were a complete failure After some agreements on basic principles reiterated at the beginning on the serious errors that should be avoided no significant or objective progress occurred to enliven an approach which had been likely to amalgamate common research The long-awaited founding moment missed the call and the institutional authorities quickly gave up rushing its advent goodwill is not enough I have also explained in another context how thanks to fatigue these confrontations can get lost in speculative philosophical exchanges offering a dissimulating screen to defeat [GUI 14]

The second experience a more anecdotal but also more exciting one took place 20 years later at an evening of informal discussion hosted by the ldquoAgrarian Systems and Developmentrdquo Department of the INRA3 Among the participants some belonged to the social sciences both to universities in terms of applied research as well as specialized engineers (crop experts and zoo-technicians for example) Such a meeting is not self-evident because in the eyes of many human sciences academics agriculture remains a 3 Institut national de la recherche agronomique (French National Institute of Agronomic Research) The meeting was unexpectedly organized by Philippe Geslin and his colleagues from the SAD in Toulouse

x Social Structures and Natural Systems

perverted district corrupted by its submission to capitalist economy a frantic quest for productivity and ethnocentric utilitarianism From the 1980s onwards however a significant part of farming technologists striving to expand their research media (from the crop to the plot of land then to exploitation or even home produce) quickly became aware that on this path economic rationality confronts disturbances caused by social relationships which obey different imperatives Hence the desire to find a balance regarding obstacles and the upcoming difficulties by means of a confrontation of approaches

The resulting interdisciplinary dialogue proved to be of exceptional quality and puzzling intensity The side of suspected ldquotechnocratsrdquo precisely described the practical obstacles in seeking concrete ways to overcome them and these illustrations forced their interlocutors to identify analysis conditions directly related to the aforementioned problems On the contrary these exchanges suddenly revealed to me something I had been deprived of as a result of being in contact with social sciences researchers ndash my own community ndash due to the predominance acquired by relativistic inspiration and its ldquopostrdquo the quest for scientific solutions likely to be field tested In return for a moment I regained the reassuring feeling that the fixedness of discussions is in no way an inexorable curse

In the long run the opposition of these episodes became necessarily obsessive for an individual whose professional career had been since the beginning focused on a desire for effective conciliation between the methods of ecology and those of the social sciences4 An initial fairly obvious conclusion immediately arose the goals imposed on applied research assume a driving and essential role to make interdisciplinary communication progress while the ldquoterritorialrdquo reflexes of disciplines act as a powerful brake in delaying progress with purely conceptual confrontations In other words the technical nature of the application promotes transgressions some of which may prove to be decisive or constructive On the other hand the concern for theoretical accuracy induces a defensive and restrictive behavior

4 It was for this purpose that confronted with the resurgence of biological determinism I had jointly taken up doctoral studies in zoology (1981) and social anthropology (1982) with the more precise objective of assimilating the scientific logic to both sides of the great frontier

Introduction xi

A priori this observation seems to advocate for ldquoindisciplinarityrdquo or to utterly reject the methodological dictatorship inspired by Paul Feyerabend [FEY 79] Nonetheless a total disavowal of this sort favors a general orientation to the detriment of an inventory of pitfalls which could challenge reliability Truth be told it took me years to overcome the discouragement distilled by the antinomy of these two reminiscences the brilliant failure of the large multidisciplinary conferences of the 1980s eclipsed the actual fact that in the second image it was the technicians who required theoretical clarifications depending on the repetition of some practical inconveniences And it was them too who refined the questioning starting from this empirical substrate by controlling the adequacy of responses step by step

Implemented techniques contain satisfying procedures Or at least temporarily The assertion applies as much to reasoning techniques as to material production techniques since it controls the possibility of identifying technical knowledge [GUI 17] In return the need to review the type of reasoning emerges from the perplexity of technicians when they find themselves embarrassed by accidental roadblocks or unexpected instabilities As soon as stated the assertion looks like a trivial point and yet we are constantly experiencing the power of its obliteration by means of informal competition a speech regarding the construction of knowledge first diluted in epistemology sociology or anthropology but finally extracting its resources from philosophy by literally hovering over the scramble In this light the inherent failure in the first memory no longer refers to ldquodisciplinary protectionismrdquo exclusively when hampered by a technical fault discussions fatally find their way towards philosophical extrapolations

A few years ago a prestigious sociologist asked me in a skeptical tone what novelty I was to announce regarding biologists By reflex I replied that I had nothing to say about them because my problem had always been working with them Social sciences certainly would be more than wrong not to commit themselves to the analysis of established networks between naturalists and sociologists in a specific nation or during a particular time frame As long as we remember that this does not exhaust the topics for discussion and that these disciplines should cooperate on rough terrain where neither biologists nor sociologists occupy the ldquolead-rolerdquo let us not so quickly overlook the few other billion bipeds obsessed with non-academic environments

xii Social Structures and Natural Systems

Throughout the last quarter century the proportion of researchers agreeing to acknowledge the relationship between environment and society both as a theoretical and a practical problem has decreased like Balzacrsquos ldquoMagic Skinrdquo Between a cultural relativism enveloping nature a ldquonaturistrdquo morality parasiting science and an ontological anthropology on the one hand and mechanicism intoxicated by the omnipotence of molecular biology on the other hand everything contributes to the dissociation of global representation from factual analysis While interdisciplinarity officially remains a prominent hope we no longer search for its spine we are going through a ldquopost-methodologicalrdquo phase in which dissemination adds to compartmentalization both on the sphere of the means as well as on the goals pursued Accordingly an opaque screen stands before the main crucial questions

The worst thing is that apparently direct discussion of such topics is close to impropriety regardless of its controversial character the debate itself now has unwelcome features Thus a scientific journal requested three book reviews concerning Lrsquoeacutecologie kidnappeacutee [GUI 14] a text reflecting the concern about the weakening of rationality in human ecology none of the commentators addressed the central arguments but each mimicked the position of a teacher who corrects a studentrsquos paper on contentious issues Funny though distressing the repetition of the operation reflected an evasive spirit in front of controversy more than cunning In parallel booksellers did not place this volume on the shelves reserved for anthropology nor on those devoted to the life sciences it was exclusively among the political ecology titles where it felt somehow uncomfortable ldquoPost-ideologicalrdquo science still seems quiet and distant

I2 Targets ambitions and operating instructions

In these conditions why strive to write this essay and who will it address but a few ldquoliving fossilsrdquo of rationalism Let us not give up too fast it is unclear how basic research could indefinitely boast of its modesty and advocate for an understanding that thrives in the form of the benevolent contemplation of living room anchorites If necessary applied research will once more take up the development of procedures that interpret less but operate better

Introduction xiii

This is the reason why once past the introductory gloom the coming pages will no longer content themselves with a criticism of the current situation with its dismal notes its denials or its defections They will not dispute the current atmosphere because they will adhere to a post-ldquopost-rdquo reconstructive point of view Even if it means preaching in the desert it is preferable to turn towards the future as an optimistic prophet The famous ldquowillingness to do sciencerdquo having fully immersed itself in the registry of sufficiency the alternatives boil down to exculpating oneself by showing some honor or to impassively assuming effrontery As a result this book is intended as an epistemological and theoretical work destined for readers who are reluctant to epistemology and theory although these ldquolead to everything when they succeedrdquo and precisely because they have the habit of never succeeding it is destined to a public who in an already complex situation entangled by socio-ecological ldquonodesrdquo does not resign to sigh a vanitas vanitatum before moving on to something else A few candles will be fervently lit to the gods of materialism so that the audience somewhat reunites more than the handful of agronomists met a dozen years ago However these will always remain as imaginary interlocutors so as not to lose sight of the intended reconstruction of the debate The denigration of utilitarianism was transformed into an unconditional rejection of usefulness and the condemnation of productivity turned into an aversion to achievement But these surreptitious downfalls are ultimately useful only for hypocritical conservatism

Let us be clear it will entail moving from the general to the particular turning back to the past in numerous places searching for example the history of invasive or confusing concepts and also narrowing hackneyed theoretical difficulties The first chapter will have the ldquotasterdquo and the ldquoallurerdquo of philosophy even in the efforts exerted to keep it at a distance Incidentally when attacking neuralgic points it will provisionally focus on anthropology at the expense of ecology The significant difference will be that for once the expected result will not seek to get the final word on the matter nor even to make a hint at this but to establish the currently desirable use making a latent error visible or identifying a short-term type of benefit in the reasoning The game will then focus on the short-term need to the detriment of the search for ldquopurerdquo truth near the horizon and the project supported here will attempt to outline a defensive methodology driven by a clear priority given to the means for recognizing and avoiding pitfalls against the recipes developed to discover delicate ideality If only for the purpose of detecting possible traps within so-called ldquoheuristicrdquo processes

xiv Social Structures and Natural Systems

which fluctuate according to intellectual fashion regarding the conquering side of methodology precisely the terrain in which schools of thought develop a fierce competition This essay will have reached its goal if it helps biologists and sociologists wanting to establish a productive dialogue to jointly protect themselves against calamitous vices

The fascination exerted by the structure or the system often ends up obliterating the prerequisites for contending on one area or another This explains to a large extent that between the social sciences and ecology cooperation is revealed as highly embarrassed by what these rationalities willingly or unwillingly share except for the obvious differences between their aspirations and their inspiration if a model jointly seduces the vision on nature and culture it immediately becomes the means for a jousting because the authority acquired on this construction by science is translated into the right to develop a viewpoint regarding the problems conceived by other sciences around this topic Jean-Luc Jamard rightly observed that a matrix designed by a science X but eventually dead at this point can legitimately continue to galvanize the inspiration of a discipline Y [JAM 93] Why extend a right of ownership to something discarded if not to dictate a way of thinking to remote knowledge

When pragmatism is involved in exploration a lucid approximation suddenly deserves more attention than unattainable perfection In biology as well as in sociology systems and structures have more than a fleeting relationship with original elaborations and the question is then why do these concepts embed themselves as essentially unavoidable against all odds The answer probably emerges in parallel with the misfortunes of other concepts such as society ethnicity culture and even primitive which despite prohibitive convictions still have not evaporated they persist with ldquorigorous quotation marksrdquo indicating that the author has not been fooled but that for the time being that does not matter so much Perhaps in the long run discomfort will pervade the proliferation of these quotation marks which signal the growing number of mental swamps that should be avoided

A major failure generally undermines contemporary critical thought when it weighs the available reasoning tools in the scientific field the rejection of a concept should lead to its complete replacement by another one or several others Otherwise criticism vegetates in a pernicious state of incompletion In other words it does not suffice to confirm that the idea under criticism cannot answer the questions involved but it is necessary to forge a term

Introduction xv

which free from deplorable orientations can preserve the aforementioned questions Otherwise the refutation of the incorrect abstraction could lead to the abandonment of a request for information whose need intact or modified has not yet vanished At this level conventional quotation marks indicate a pending requirement and a lack of means to suitably express it Relativism turns dissatisfaction into acquiescence

Given the desirable brevity of a reflection intending to provide a medium for interdisciplinary communication using clear pointers the coming chapters will strive to highlight clear proposals in an admissible language for all the sectors involved possibly questionable ndash since only Nature with its capital letters holds theoretical neutrality ndash but devoid of ambiguities as far as possible Equal distance will have to be kept from the esoterism of technocracy as well as from metaphysics which bloom when exchanges start to creak The counterpart of this desire to extract functional statements occasionally manifests in a sharp tone with an oscillation between disruptive verdicts and a pontificating compendium We implore the reader to kindly excuse us but the desire to be protected against analogous slippages calls for this inconvenience without any intention of being trivial the ambiguous title of the following chapter prompts the reader to consider this harshness with a smile The stated ldquonon-negotiable conditionsrdquo will remain questionable the absence of negotiation connoting a clash of radically incompatible positions So much for that controversy only kills arguments and besides some of them are reborn with the snarky face of a phoenix having changed the color of its plumage

In the same state of mind a number of allegations will be shamelessly characterized as ldquomethodological assertionsrdquo and designated as such with two figures the first one referring to the chapter in which they appear and the second one indicating the order of arrival in the chapter Once again we reckon that the process is horrifying for various reasons (heaviness boastfulness excess etc) However to its credit we can only mention that it will considerably simplify the transverse trajectories of this volume thus stimulating the overall understanding of the line of argument and facilitating a critical perspective Furthermore it should encourage future debates Finally this will help the uncompromising pragmatism of some specific readers not to be discouraged by some outrageously abstract passages particularly in the first chapter Methodological assertions (MA) will provide anchor points and summarized assumptions They will point out a strategic spot of controversy at the same time that they will pave the way for

xvi Social Structures and Natural Systems

the rest of the argument as a consequence the reader will be able to go back to certain points if they later feel that the reasoning surrounding an affirmation justifies a rebound back to the source So never mind literary fluidity it is the milestones which have priority

Let us add that in essays which have a summarizing vocation the author is generally tempted to reinforce his point by an abundance of illustrations We will rather follow the opposite less attractive but more persuasive approach in the long run coming back several times to specific research points in order to consider their implications from various angles

The reader may also wonder why these illustrations have not been extracted from applied research An accessory but painful and absurd impediment comes from the general disdain of the human sciences for applied research it is supposed to receive fundamental lessons but presumably may have no theoretical grounding to provide in return Together with this parasitic factor lies a more solid reason a local situation in a final survey demands a full description that is to say a long text while fundamental research knows how to isolate distinct topics so as to focus the presentation on a specific question Each of the chapters that follow could at least become a book if they had to be transcribed within the context of practical considerations In addition applied research spontaneously exposes interdisciplinary cooperation to empirical boycott whereas our endeavor is to clarify the prerequisites of an encounter between sciences which have only learned to soliloquize Everything comes down to one thing this book will be successful if and only if it becomes a beginning

1

Non-Negotiable Conditions for a Scientific Stereoscopy

Is it really necessary to trace the argument back to the disjunction between science and philosophy or even between idealism and materialism The solemn vow of utility made in the introductory pages rather exhorts a careful circumvention of these ancient disjunctions decidedly ldquoeasier to grab than to let gordquo Unfortunately if the devil is in the detail it is also at work in the ldquofoundationsrdquo ldquobasesrdquo or principles Not to mention in the ldquoobviousrdquo At a time when the militancy of indecision rules evading obscurity at this level would be the equivalent of rushing towards fatal stalemates However even if science displays more solidity than what relativism acknowledges interdisciplinarity for its part is characterized by a native instability which severely weakens its initiatives

The expression ldquonon-negotiable conditionsrdquo which opens this chapter sounds like a childish provocation intended to irritate relativists Let us plead guilty as regards the mischievous spirit but the case goes well beyond this epidermic character By no means does non-negotiable imply insensitive to criticism Bias is attached to the researcherrsquos position when he undertakes a task at this moment ontological considerations regarding knowledge or its object should leave the scene and leave room for fixed rules shared by the protagonists Discussions regarding correct applications should leave Hamletrsquos terrible question aside

On the opening pages of a now classic collection La science telle qursquoelle se fait [CAL 90] Michel Callon and Bruno Latour also started with a bugle call ldquoWe can either discuss the legitimacy of a sociology of scientific

Social Structures and Natural Systems Is a Scientific Assemblage Workable

First Edition Georges Guille-Escuret

copy ISTE Ltd 2018 Published by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley amp Sons Inc

2 Social Structures and Natural Systems

knowledge or we can put it in practicerdquo Let us inflect the claim ldquowerdquo can be immersed in both activities and producers are expected to become involved in their assessment but above all not at the same time This incompatibility exists in every science However it does not entail insurmountable difficulty for a biologist whereas the suspicion that weighs on sociological knowledge constantly makes the amalgam a tempting one Devastating dissymmetry accompanies the cooperation between naturalists and sociologists while the first ones can easily dissociate assessment and action the latter retreat to prerequisites by reflex as soon as their partners become cunning And this under the risk of witnessing the mixture between science and meta-science inhibit any practical achievement

Far from wanting to support a healthy philosophy against a bad one or to argue for some kind of neutrality (everyone knows that this pretension would already imply an orientation) the aim here is to make the separation between philosophical discourse and scientific dissertation perceptible the first one confronting the second one according to two opposite modes on the one hand that of external intuitions (sometimes interesting or tonic) and on the other hand that of parasitic infiltration which secretly undermines research The challenge then is to conceive a breach other than in the form of a watertight partition while communication between these areas cannot be proscribed how can we reorient the constant flow of misunderstandings

11 Operating principles against metaphysical principles

A second unacknowledged dissymmetry concerns the outstanding fact of their dialogue in fact an essential gap opposes the assimilation of a scientific conclusion by philosophers and contrary to this the reception of an argument proposed by metaphysics in the field of science In short this can directly recover the information produced by the ldquoscholarrdquo without any inconvenience but should all the same always transpose the idea of the ldquowise manrdquo by translating his terms to the concrete media of every research project A priori the difficulty seems quite incidental and technically easy to overcome When Goethe spoke about nature Bergson about life or Sartre about history their visions camped on a horizon nobody would have to motivate them to have to prove these as reliable elements since the reprimand would have quickly become offending ldquoEvenrdquo in the human sciences a strict caution policy is generally enforced

Non-Negotiable Conditions for a Scientific Stereoscopy 3

Unfortunately the philosopher does not always display their identity while at some other times the scholar tends to weaken their own by spontaneously fading its boundaries And here the situation is sometimes altered in fearsome proportions

111 Ventriloquist philosophy

This critical complication elicits very few comments Worse when the relationship between sciencephilosophy tightens this generally results in a ruling ethereal thought and this even when the reflection emanates from a scientist proud of being such many sociologists ndash too many maybe ndash have been trained by the followers of Plato and Aristotle and there are countless biologists at the end of their careers who like to pontificate about the deep meaning of nature Torrents of purely philosophical words regarding the access to truth and episteme emerge from all walks of life whereas the caution that science should frontally keep against the authority of the specialists of the absolute is dissolved drop by drop What follows is wishful compensation next to the debates regarding the epistemological principles that govern the mainspring of science it is important for science under its exclusive responsibility to restore or enact the sine qua non conditions of its activity starting by those related to its autonomy It does not have the status of a protectorate and complying with the requirements of a distant legitimacy attached to its project would be equivalent to accepting the inhibitions derived from a never ending suzerainty or even forgetting that for many centuries science has already existed in terms of historical and social cohesion

As a complement to the classical epistemology forged by those who look at things on the other side (a meta-) scientific researchers should grant an internal epistemology with greater consistency [GUI 97] questioning current operating principles regardless of the metaphysical principles to be achieved In the context of major resolved options the progressive development of an interdisciplinary methodology hypothesizes the reinstallation of a set of discussions which regard the assemblage of multiple technical requirements coexisting within a frame of ample cooperation in fact such deliberations seriously circumscribe the participation of the artisans of research

Despite their abstract expression these remarks quickly affect our argumentation because in concealing the dissonance between external and


internal interventions epistemology implicitly allows all kinds of clandestine smuggling between science and philosophy especially when the questions involve multidisciplinarity since the researcher of a district does not always distinguish the extrapolations permeated from another area The destruction caused by these misunderstandings on the bibliography regarding the relationship societiesbiocenosis has reached such proportions that the list would be endless While it is convenient not to linger on the caricatures offered by scientism or reductionism1 we can agree that the introductory presentations made by sociobiology [WIL 75 DAW 76] or by cultural materialism with its ldquostruggle for a science of culturerdquo [HAR 79] have provided textbook cases in this respect Students should be trained to identify the expedients which contribute to the corruption of a so-called uncompromising scientific ambition2 In a totally different context and with far more subtlety Bruno Latour opened an essay which led him to be a recognized sociologist and on its last page he confessed to being satisfied with having accomplished his own ldquophilosophical workrdquo [LAT 91 p 198] the invisible trespassing of a later denied threshold thanks to this study and which led to far-reaching consequences on the intellectual journey of its author Except that the transition was not visible while it was taking place practice silently preceded theory

For a condensed view of the confiscation of this duality and its replacement by confusion let us quote a double example in which juxtaposition leads to mystification ldquonegentropyrdquo was welded into entropy [SCH 44]3 whereas ldquomaladaptationrdquo was added to adaptation [RAP 84] In both cases a rigorous and binding concept was suddenly decorated by a strangely liberating complement invented ex nihilo Apart from the adulterated legitimacy that the derivation sought our attention should focus on an unnoticed aspect not only were these ldquonegativerdquo embellishments scientifically unsound but their advent tended to corrupt their source A reflection which simultaneously refers to negentropy and entropy uproots the

1 The distinction between the two is often difficult they share a habit for betting on the omnipotence of a chain of causality in the short term 2 Deterministic theories of cultural ecology and cultural materialism have suffered severe criticism blow by blow but few attacks detailing the argumentation mode itself See [GUI 85 GUI 94 PAR 17] for sociobiology As for cultural materialism let us recall a forgotten article by Philippe Descola on ldquostarving determinismrdquo [DES 88] 3 Erwin Schroumldinger was certainly a great physicist but it was while he was making a dissertation on life that he assumed the position of a philosopher and that he sensed negentropy


archetype which is then metamorphosed into an irreversibly philosophical idea And adaptation only retains its meaning by standing away from maladaptation or else the two terms would form a tautological couple (the content of one would finally be inferred from the lack of the other)

That being said processes regularly acquire the more capricious twist of a rebound In the same way that Andreacute Breton defined pornography as the ldquoeroticism of the othersrdquo philosophy willingly reemerged in the guise of an opposing science biology was challenged by the anthropologist whereas anthropology was mocked by the biologist and was thus transformed into a gateway for a clandestine philosophical discourse which the interpreter could place under the responsibility of their own discipline For this purpose it was enough to criticize an external abuse and to ldquoinferrdquo an appropriate inner position which however would only owe a distant inspiration to the official scientificity defended by the accuser In other words while science X denounced the philosophical bias of science Y it then inherited ldquocorrectedrdquo wisdom as a rebound

While countless masters of ethology genetics or evolution theories have more or less candidly adopted this tactic their counterparts in anthropology have not disdained it either for example when they stepped up against the impudence of sociobiology Marshall Sahlins and Claude Leacutevi-Strauss [SAH 77 LEV 83] retrospectively consolidated broad convictions regarding the essence of the social through diverse extrapolations by taking advantage of the presence of sensational opposition [PAR 17] The counterproposal supposedly the outcome of the rebuttal blithely went beyond the zone of critical efficiency and set out to compete against adversaries within the truly disproportionate and unjustifiable framework of ldquoscientificrdquo ambition

Levi-Strauss thus offers us the best opportunity to complete this overview with a last textbook case the one in which philosophy itself occupies the ungrateful role of the target and innocently favors the distillation of a stealthy drift inside a scientific construction The structuralist author published La penseacutee sauvage in 1962 and in the last chapter he forcefully attacked Jean-Paul Sartre whose Critique de la raison dialectique had recently been published [SAR 60 LEacuteV 62] For the time being let us leave the content of the controversy aside in order to clarify the ambiguity the contradiction that the anthropologist contributed in the name of his own competence necessarily fell on the ground of the opponent It should have been the same for the lesson learned from denigration but this finally ldquoenrichedrdquo the issuerrsquos knowledge by


pretending never to have left him Structuralism as a ldquotrendrdquo4 drew great advantage from this episode by way of philosophical support advocating for a sharing between the study of infrastructure as mainly assigned to history on the one hand (ldquoassisted by demographics technology historical geography and ethnographyrdquo) and the theory of superstructure attributed to ethnology which was quickly conceived as a ldquopsychologyrdquo on the other hand [LEacuteV 62 p 174] Nevertheless the operation was supposed to materialize among the sciences despite the fact that these had not been invited to discuss its terms Conscious or not the coup was undeniably clever as well as powerful in the following pages we will see that it undermined the exchanges between the supporters of ecology and those of sociology (in the broad sense)

Leacutevi-Strauss received a broad training in philosophy before going to Brazil Among other things his triumph on the academic scene radically changed the image of ethnology which had so far oscillated between the nest of enlightened explorers and human naturalism The new recruits bottle-fed by Rousseau more than Darwin multiplied the bridges with classical studies which the French used to call ldquohumanitiesrdquo Without diminishing the gain obtained thanks to this contest we should be aware of the profusion of ambiguities as well as the confusing entanglement that followed and which proved an obstacle to the sobriety of interdisciplinary dialogues And now the time has come for us to initiate our advertised series of ldquoMethodological Assertionsrdquo

METHODOLOGICAL ASSERTION 11ndash It should be necessary to differentiate and then to exclude the infiltration of a philosophical thesis at the heart of a scientific argument because this contribution does not discuss science except from the outside proposals coming from different backgrounds should never compete on the same level Philosophy has the right to generate assumptions but it is up to the responsibility of the scientist to prevent a discreet thesis from being interpolated in reasoning A mixture between philosophy and science inevitably falls under the aegis of philosophy

METHODOLOGICAL ASSERTION 12ndash The refutation of an error or an insufficiency detected within another discipline should not become the

4 Against the prevailing opinion of his contemporaries Leacutevi-Strauss always refused to accept the creation or the organization of a school of thought On issues related to Leacutevi-Strauss in the face of the scientificity see Jean-Luc Jamard [JAM 93]


excuse for a philosophical counter-proposal that is to say the uncontrollable expansion of information disclosed by denial

We have to resist the temptation to consider that the global representations of the world by philosophy and ideology5 denounce the fake against a science which offers the truth every form of relativism is built upon the trap supported by this simplifying perception Ideology subdues everything anticipates everything or it succeeds in convincing itself only the mathematics and the physics of the 20th Century were sometimes successful in introducing disconcerting discoveries which (temporarily) left everyone speechless On the other hand it seems impossible to be off guard when we refer to life humankind society or history Meanwhile science cannot yet understand everything otherwise what would it seek From time to time it can demolish external certainty in one sector or another but it has no access to universal patterns

In this sense the researcher who explores and the scholar who teaches are two complementary conditions which incidentally differ in their dealings with philosophy Research can therein capture a shred of inspiration which can be reformulated within a particular problem The professor should point out the limits reached by his knowledge but he becomes a philosopher as soon as he opposes an ideology in a competing position At this moment relativism preys on it as a vehicle for a belief which is ldquoneither worse nor better than anotherrdquo

The counterproposal effectively implies the entry into the field of ideology but this refusal of passivity does not necessarily lead to a withering This was revealed by the anecdote of Pastafarianism created by Bobby Henserson in 2005 in revolt against the growing success of a claim by the proponents of ldquointelligent designrdquo6 and with the aim of obtaining equal teaching time to the one allocated to the theory of evolution at schools At that moment this student invented an allegiance to the Flying Spaghetti Monster a wacky demiurge served by a burlesque mythology which has become quite fashionable by the way The originality of this fable if compared to previous ones (such as Bertrand Russellrsquos cosmic teapot for

5 By ideology we will only refer to a global interpretation of the world without prejudging its social or historical substrate social class institution etc Philosophy is only one among many various possible sources 6 A creationist theory which mimics scientific language without respecting any method


example) comes from Hendersonrsquos commitment to legally defend the faith in his flying spaghetti so that his extraordinary creation of the universe enters schools enjoying the same rights as ldquointelligent designrdquo Does not every belief deserve to be respected Suddenly mirrored by a relativism which dilutes science into belief scientific corrosion emerges which uncompromisingly undermines the protests of religion

This little tale is not a digression given the permeability between mysticism and morality think of their parasitic action over so many practical questions that human ecology has failed to treat without drowning under the interference of oracles barely more innocent than intelligent design or even as farfetched as Pastafarianism Are we not in need of a complement to post-ecologism which could bring its anathemas far beyond human civilizations and which could blame life as disgusting planetary mildew A bio-phobia deploring this blunder of atoms on the surface of physically unstable bodies which could reduce the interference of nature lovers and restore a little scientific serenity After all the methane that cows yield contributes to global warming guilty

112 Two materialisms and one idealism the initial bet of science

Nevertheless since science was founded by a rationalist philosophy is not the subset still dependent on the whole In fact considering logical continuity unveils a historical split whereas following the temporal thread reveals a methodological rupture Science proceeds from a materialistic challenge which is contrary to the bet proposed by Pascal except that while the latter placed the eternal silence of infinite spaces on God the scientist tackles the issue of matter within temporary and limited worlds

This is the very first ldquooperating principlerdquo whose application detaches itself from metaphysics precisely because it identifies itself with an application which determines a program a progressive task a list of operations to be performed Socrates knew nothing Occam economized Descartes doubted everything and at the end of the race Laplace revoked the intangible in assumptions When considering being philosophy is organized around the endless duel between idealism and materialism but wishes to feed its discussions by acquiring data concerning the way in which things happen around man and develops a sector destined to inform it about all kinds of issues the data produced by science stimulate its theses as well as its


antitheses Nevertheless these inquiries only animate the debate between opposing currents by avoiding prematurely taking sides and supporting all or a part of the conclusion in the middle of the introductory elements It is therefore imperative to proceed exclusively from observable facts in other words accessible matter and the energy associated with it

Apart from materialism which in metaphysics is opposed to idealism a ldquorestricted materialismrdquo emerges which abstains from any dissertation on the ultimate essence of the universe it only ldquobetsrdquo on its readability Regardless of whether God exists or not he does not visit the world as a deus ex machina repairing imperfections at a natural theatre with an improvised rain of miracles The scientific method or ldquorationalismrdquo is dependent on restricted materialism which the secondary differences never internally question since it designates the ldquonon-negotiable conditionrdquo above all others Historians have shown how this clause spread more quietly where monotheism consented to glorify the intelligible order of the physical world as divine message

METHODOLOGICAL ASSERTION 13ndash It is important to differentiate methodological materialism (belonging to the project of science) from philosophical materialism which is in perpetual rivalry with idealism7 A lot of misunderstandings between philosophical and scientific discourse result from the sliding of criticism which targets philosophical materialism with amendments aimed at methodological materialism while idealism rarely consents to discerning between them

When an author claims to be ldquomoving beyondrdquo the antagonism between materialism and idealism (a common wish in the human sciences nowadays) there is no risk in predicting that the output will significantly be oriented towards the second position and that methodological materialism will accidentally wipe away the toughest blows We have seen Leacutevi-Strauss stand up against Sartre to take anthropology away from history Let us now instead take a look at Sahlins once again advocating for the reconciliation of structure and history in the last chapter of a brilliant essay The choice of the example is 7 Despite being considered from a different angle a similar gap between philosophical materialism and materialism conceived as a condition and a tool for objective knowledge presides over the recent essay by epistemologist Patrick Tort a leading authority on Darwinism and the theory of evolution Qursquoest-ce que le mateacuterialisme [TOR 16] This convergence on dissociation is in no way accidental we have both been surprised to see some researchers rigorously apply a materialist approach in their professional practice while ldquoincidentallyrdquo remaining convinced believers


less fortuitous than the topic explored here ndash the way in which the event is treated ndash considering that it will later occupy a crucial position between ecology and the social sciences The reader will gain an advantage by keeping this assertion in mind

ldquoClearly the twin anthropological (or historical) errors of materialism and idealism consist in attempts to link the meaningful significance and the worldly happening in some mechanical or physicalist relation of cause and effect For materialism the significance is the direct effect of the objective properties of the happening This ignores the relative value or meaning given to the happening by the society For idealism the happening is simply an effect of its significance This ignores the burden of ldquorealityrdquo the forces that have real effects if always in the terms of some cultural schemerdquo [SAH 85 p 154] in italics in the text)

Sahlins irreproachably dismantled the anomaly by revoking a simplistic type of causality with its equally deplorable contradictory versions The relevance of the attack on the scientific level raises no doubt moreover it is a worn-out affair since functionalism has always been reproached for attributing a more or less concrete utility to each social fact and the structuralist tendency to neglect the action of material variables elicited early reprobation Marxist anthropology undoubtedly disapproved of this double mistake by attributing it to a psychologism incapable of admitting the autonomous coherence of the social order Let us recapitulate we have mentioned functionalism structuralism Marxism and psychologism to which we should add historicism and economism So far we have a terrain heavily loaded with various markers

So why directly evoke idealism and materialism Undoubtedly in order to go faster but towards what other than the translation of a scientific difficulty into a metaphysical duel It is literally a false evasion then the discussion escapes interdisciplinarity by stifling anthropology in the face of philosophy To be convinced let us read the words which immediately follow the passage reproduced above

ldquoThe same goes for theory and practice taken as phenomenal alternatives this objectified distinction between cultural concepts and practical activities that is itself untrue in practice




Volume 2










Contents

Introduction vii






















Conclusion 219

References 225

Index 241

Introduction



Gaston Bachelard1










Introduction ix











Introduction xi









Introduction xiii








Introduction xv








1































































Contents

Introduction vii






















Conclusion 219

References 225

Index 241

Introduction



Gaston Bachelard1










Introduction ix











Introduction xi









Introduction xiii








Introduction xv








1





































































Conclusion 219

References 225

Index 241

Introduction



Gaston Bachelard1










Introduction ix











Introduction xi









Introduction xiii








Introduction xv








1

























































Introduction



Gaston Bachelard1










Introduction ix











Introduction xi









Introduction xiii








Introduction xv








1































































Introduction ix











Introduction xi









Introduction xiii








Introduction xv








1






























































Introduction xi









Introduction xiii








Introduction xv








1






























































Introduction xiii








Introduction xv








1






























































Introduction xv








1





























































1

























































thumbnails - download.e-bookshelf.de€¦ · 1.3.1. the illusory sphere of the ideas ..... 53...

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