From the Social Sciences to One Social Science: Anti-utilitarian Foundations

Alain Caillé ()
Additional contact information
Alain Caillé: Université de Paris X

Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi. An Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics, History and Political Science, 2018, vol. 52, issue 2, 69-94

Abstract: In the light of the current fragmented state of social sciences, it may appear paradoxical to call for a general social science. After all, however, there already exist whole sections of such science under the form of what could be defined as the “economic model”, resting on the theory of rational (or quasi rational) choice. The problem with this economic model is that its applicability is local and partial at best. Some thirty internationally renowned social scientists (antropologists, economists, geographers, historians, philosophers, and sociologists from all over the world) met in 2015 at Château de Cerisy-la-Salle (France) and reached a consensus on the need and urgence to build a general social science on non- ou anti-utilitarian foundations. In the article, we illustrate the various arguments made in the discussion and focus on the epistemological difficulties inherent to the project. We conclude that such problems are mainly of an institutional character. The aim of developing a general social science requires recruiting professors and scholars who have received a twoor three-disciplinary education. Medicine needs generalist, and not only specialists. This is even truer of social science.

Keywords: Rational Choice Theory; Anti-Utilitarianism; Interdisciplinarity; Unity of Science. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.annalsfondazioneluigieinaudi.it/images ... 02_E-4535-Caille.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fle:journl:v:52:y:2018:i:2:p:69-94

DOI: 10.26331/1054

Access Statistics for this article

Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi. An Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics, History and Political Science is currently edited by Francesco Cassata, Mario Aldo Cedrini, Roberto Marchionatti, Federica Morelli and Angela Ambrosino

More articles in Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi. An Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics, History and Political Science from Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Torino (Italy) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mario Aldo Cedrini ().