[ La pensée sociale en Afrique: Entre neutralité et engagement ]
Volume 40, Issue 2, August 2023, Pages 553–562
Dotsè Charles-Grégoire Alosse1
1 Maître de Conférences en Philosophie politique, Université de Kara, Togo
Original language: French
Copyright © 2023 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The question of the right distance between subject and object has always been crucial for the social sciences. It reveals two aspects: epistemological and ethical. From the epistemological point of view, the concern concerns the objective knowledge that one can produce on objects of which one is a part. From the ethical point of view, the concern concerns the axiological position that can be defended in the study of phenomena involving values on which we ourselves make judgments. Social criticism is based on axiological neutrality as a methodological posture of social science research. This wébérienne requirement is part of the criteria of scientific neutrality and the criteria of scientificity which aims objectivity and excludes subjectivity. By proposing to situate social thinking in the African context, our approach consists, starting from social criticism but taking to witness one of the arenas of its manifestations that are universities and especially those African. The thinkers of the social, within these institutions, produce reactions that are confronted, through social criticism and social commitment, with the institutional pressures of regulation and control of the social particularly in the ranks of African academics who have the merit of asking the social question and enlightening the enlightenment of society in which knowledge and power are equidistant.
Author Keywords: Africa, social criticism, engagement, neutrality, social sciences.
Volume 40, Issue 2, August 2023, Pages 553–562
Dotsè Charles-Grégoire Alosse1
1 Maître de Conférences en Philosophie politique, Université de Kara, Togo
Original language: French
Copyright © 2023 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
The question of the right distance between subject and object has always been crucial for the social sciences. It reveals two aspects: epistemological and ethical. From the epistemological point of view, the concern concerns the objective knowledge that one can produce on objects of which one is a part. From the ethical point of view, the concern concerns the axiological position that can be defended in the study of phenomena involving values on which we ourselves make judgments. Social criticism is based on axiological neutrality as a methodological posture of social science research. This wébérienne requirement is part of the criteria of scientific neutrality and the criteria of scientificity which aims objectivity and excludes subjectivity. By proposing to situate social thinking in the African context, our approach consists, starting from social criticism but taking to witness one of the arenas of its manifestations that are universities and especially those African. The thinkers of the social, within these institutions, produce reactions that are confronted, through social criticism and social commitment, with the institutional pressures of regulation and control of the social particularly in the ranks of African academics who have the merit of asking the social question and enlightening the enlightenment of society in which knowledge and power are equidistant.
Author Keywords: Africa, social criticism, engagement, neutrality, social sciences.
Abstract: (french)
La question de la juste distance entre sujet et objet a toujours été cruciale pour les sciences sociales. Elle laisse voir deux aspects: épistémologique et éthique. Du point de vue épistémologique, la préoccupation concerne la connaissance objective qu’on peut produire sur des objets dont on fait soi-même partie. Du point de vue éthique, la préoccupation porte sur la position axiologique qu’on peut défendre dans l’étude de phénomènes mettant en jeu des valeurs sur lesquelles on porte soi-même des jugements. La critique sociale se base sur la neutralité axiologique en tant que posture méthodologique de la recherche en sciences sociales. Cette exigence wébérienne fait partie des critères de la neutralité scientifique et des critères de la scientificité qui vise l’objectivité et exclu la subjectivité. En se proposant de situer la penser sociale dans le contexte africain, notre approche consiste, à partir de la critique sociale mais prenant à témoin une des arènes de ses manifestations que sont les universités et notamment celles africaines. Les penseurs du social, au sein de ces institutions, produisent des réactions qui sont aux prises, à travers la critique sociale et l’engagement social, avec les pressions institutionnelles de règlementation et de contrôle du social notamment dans les rangs des universitaires africains qui ont le mérite de poser la question sociale et d’éclairer la lanterne de la société au sein de laquelle savoir et pouvoir sont équidistants.
Author Keywords: Afrique, critique sociale, engagement, neutralité, sciences sociales.
How to Cite this Article
Dotsè Charles-Grégoire Alosse, “Social thinking in Africa: Between neutrality and commitment,” International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 553–562, August 2023.
