La question de la connaissance a priori en sciences sociales: les points de vue de Simiand, Mises et Simmel

Robitaille, Christian (2023) La question de la connaissance a priori en sciences sociales: les points de vue de Simiand, Mises et Simmel. Revue de philosophie économique, 24 (2). (Accepted for Publication)

Text (Accepted, should be published in December 2023) La question de la connaissance a priori en sciences sociales.docx - Accepted Version Download (73kB)

Abstract

(In French:) Contemporary social sciences have abandoned the quest for true, non-relativistic, a priori knowledge. On the one hand, quantitative methods and methodological positivism have by and large rejected that this type of knowledge is possible. On the other hand, qualitative methods and hermeneutical approaches, when they do not explicitly seek to obtain a posteriori knowledge, are generally characterized by the adhesion to a skeptic form of apriorism according to which the adoption of any perspective or theoretical framework is considered equally valid. This article proposes to evaluate three perspectives on the possibility of a priori knowledge in the social sciences, i.e., that of François Simiand (critique of apriorism), of Ludwig von Mises (promoter of praxeological apriorism), and of Georg Simmel (initiator of formalistic apriorism). This comparative evaluation allows to put forward the scope and limits of apriorism with respect to the acquisition of knowledge in the social sciences. It allows, in the last analysis, to restore the nobility of apriorism and to thus facilitate its eventual comeback in a form that would escape the prevailing relativism.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Epistemology, history of ideas, a priori knowledge, economic sociology
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Education and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Christian Robitaille
Date Deposited:	27 Apr 2023 11:26
Last Modified:	27 Apr 2023 11:26
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/3895

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