L'abstraction inhérente à l'établissement des faits comme problème

Abstract

About the abstraction made by science, Durkheim advised that it be constrained by some correspondence with reality. But how to conceive such a corres-pondence? Asbstraction in science has many aspects, and we have to specify which one is taken into account. The focus of this paper is on a kind of abstraction-the one which occurs, in social inquiry, in the determination of the facts to be explained. The author applies to sociology a diagnostic made by G. G. Granger about this problem in history, and examines it in more details with the classical distinction between two kinds of defini-tion, real and nominal. Then, he outlines a naturalistic solution, inspired from Mauss's recommendation to develop the concrete observation of the social life. Finally, he tries to apply such a solution to the teleological explanation of action. © Presses Universitaires de France. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays.