Social structures and natural systems : is a scientific assemblage workable? / Georges Guille-Escuret.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Guille-Escuret, G. (Georges), author.

Series:

Social interdisciplinarity set ; Volume 2

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social structure--Philosophy.

Social structure.

Science--Philosophy.

Science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (271 pages).

Place of Publication:

London : ISTE Ltd. ; Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2018.

Summary:

Trapped between the caricatured causalities of biological determinism and the sinister abdications of sociological relativism, socio-ecological interdisciplinarity stagnates. It has lost sight of the ambition of a long-term program and no longer works to conduct applied research on the concrete prerequisites for reliable cooperation, despite an accumulation of emergencies. The difficulty lies in the general and prolonged abandonment of necessary procedures under the influence of hidden philosophical presumptions. In the end, ecology, sociology, history, economics, agronomy, etc. are seriously handicapped by the absence of a common epistemology of comparative practice, an absence maintained by the dominant epistemology itself. Social Structures and Natural Systems seeks to demonstrate, with regard to social anthropology and ecology, a scientific compatibility of research subject to methodological requirements that are deductible from the conditions of the existence of science itself. All of this boils down to one observation: this book will be a success if, and only if, it becomes a beginning.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Non-Negotiable Conditions for a Scientific Stereoscopy p. 1

1.1 Operating principles against metaphysical principles p. 2

1.1.1 Ventriloquist philosophy p. 3

1.1.2 Two materialisms and one idealism: the initial bet of science p. 8

1.1.3 Ontology: a catch-all concept and a bottomless pit p. 11

1.2 A "strong agenda" for interdisciplinarity? p. 17

1.2.1 Popperian demarcation, or exclusion decreed from the outside p. 17

1.2.2 Scientific self-management and the requirement of symmetry p. 20

1.2.3 Symmetry and reflexivity in the nature/culture couple p. 24

1.2.4 Two modes of interdisciplinarity p. 30

1.3 Materialism in the face of the ideal p. 34

1.3.1 The illusory sphere of the ideas p. 35

1.3.2 The three entries on human worlds p. 41

1.4 The line drawn on the side of science: frame of reference p. 45

1.4.1 The observation of the facts and the strangeness of mathematics p. 46

1.4.2 The permanent priority of the frame of reference p. 53

1.4.3 Scientific clarity and the impurity of scientists p. 58

1.5 "Reframed" comparison p. 62

Chapter 2 Relations Above All (and Before Any Cause) p. 69

2.1 The power of bonding: social relations and ecological interactions p. 71

2.2 The polarity of relationship: domestication between nature and culture p. 77

2.2.1 The asymmetry of domestication p. 77

2.2.2 Symmetry and reflexivity in domesticators p. 84

2.2.3 Original asymmetry and historical symmetries p. 91

2.3 Relations in a process: the "causes" for the Neolithic p. 94

2.4 Locks and openings p. 106

2.4.1 Robert Cresswell's locks: an analysis tool to be imposed p. 106

2.4.2 Palm wine and coffee: time is money p. 109

2.5 The vintage and the expert p. 113

2.5.1 Hierarchy takes time p. 115

2.5.2 The curse of the Languedoc vineyard p. 117

2.5.3 The oenologist, between technocracy and aesthetics p. 120

Chapter 3 Uncertain Ensembles, Imperfect Cohesion and Disruptive Events p. 129

3.1 Systems and structures: the search p. 131

3.1.1 Empirical or autochthonous ensembles p. 132

3.1.2 The structure and forgotten morphology p. 135

3.1.3 Systems open to all winds p. 139

3.1.4 Generalized structuralism, the subject and the event p. 145

3.2 The undesirable and sterilized event p. 152

3.2.1 Whitehead versus Braudel p. 152

3.2.2 The rot-proof event at the source of culture p. 160

3.3 Events and cohesion in an accelerated Neolithization p. 165

3.4 The event: a referee for theories? p. 171

3.5 The forgotten service of the fundamental in favor of the applied p. 175

Chapter 4 The Spiral of Research: Centrifugal and Centripetal Approaches p. 179

4.1 Ensembles, scales and frameworks: methodology versus methods p. 181

4.1.1 The "enriched" scales p. 181

4.1.2 Inclusions and overlaps among ensembles p. 184

4.1.3 Edges, ecotones, borders and ruptures p. 186

4.1.4 Complementarities and competitions p. 191

4.2 Spiral research: from center to periphery, or the other way around? p. 194

4.2.1 Centrifugal contrasts and centripetal understandings p. 195

4.2.2 The construction of the ecological niche p. 203

4.2.3 Constructions and mosaics p. 207

4.3 Solidary comparison and interdisciplinary p. 213.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781119423058

1119423058

9781119476689

1119476682

9781119476740

1119476747