Les voies de la déférence sur la nature des concepts sociopolitiques

Abstract

One of the main stakes of institutional discourses is to transform ontological fictions (Public Opinion, Nation, Justice, the Virgin, God) into thing-like entities. By resorting to philosophy of language, this paper aims at highlighting one of the most essential mechanisms that contribute to this statutory metamorphosis : semantic deference. Ordinary agents defer to a competent authority, whether it be the collectivity as a whole or the «experts» who represent it, the task of attributing to sociopolitical, a priori empty concepts the referents they are not entitled to. Such a validation on credit permits to distinguish deferential concepts (the Virgin, public opinion) from referential concepts, that refer to a tangible object (elm, water), as well as from fictional concepts whose use is valid only within a restricted context, isolated from the real world (Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes). One of the main stakes of institutional discourses is to transform ontological fictions (Public Opinion, Nation, Justice, the Virgin, God) into thing-like entities. By resorting to philosophy of language, this paper aims at highlighting one of the most essential mechanisms that contribute to this statutory metamorphosis : semantic deference. Ordinary agents defer to a competent authority, whether it be the collectivity as a whole or the «experts» who represent it, the task of attributing to sociopolitical, a priori empty concepts the referents they are not entitled to. Such a validation on credit permits to distinguish deferential concepts (the Virgin, public opinion) from referential concepts, that refer to a tangible object (elm, water), as well as from fictional concepts whose use is valid only within a restricted context, isolated from the real world (Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes).