Perception et normes sociales : une alternative à l'intellectualisme contemporain

In this thesis, following Alfred Schütz‟ uses of Husserl‟s theories of perception by adumbration and of the strata of ideation against Habermas attempt to replace them for a linguistic constitution of the Lebenswelt, we identify three presuppositions generally adopted by contemporary pragmatism and challenge them to argue that social norms are rooted in the prepredicative sphere of consciousness and, moreover, in existential group relations which social and functional qualities are immediately perceived, which means without any thematic representation of an object they could fill. Consequently, social norms are certainly not to follow an evolutional path progressively oriented toward conformity to the intrinsic structure of language by developing moral judgment through a discursive use of concepts. We name the presuppositions of contemporary pragmatism leading Habermas to such a view on social norms, propositional, representational and judicative. To be sure, we first show that similar presuppositions are to be find in Robert Brandom‟s pragmatic opposing Habermas on social norms. So they are pervading both side of the searlian / sellarsian opposition within the so-called intentional turn of the pragmatic turn of linguistic philosophy, forming today a large trend of contemporary pragmatism. These presuppositions are demonstrate to be theoretical bias impeding the conceptualization of some types of conducts which are learned and socially coordinate. Imitative conducts and mass phenomena are paradigmatic in Habermas‟ Theory of communicative action, which implications for the progressive rationality and morality of social norms is the object of the first part of this thesis. As the last type of conduct is the root of the institution of society in Durkheim‟s sociology, and the former is essential to role learning and the learning of language itself, both seem to participate to social norms in a way which command a more inclusive definition. Moreover, according to an overview of the constructionist trend, social theorists challenging social sciences‟ epistemic conscensus, and the founding status that French school of Moscovici claim for their psychosocial theory and method over sociology – in the second part of this thesis, we argue that such attitudes like reactance and others identified by psychosociological research must be integrated to social theory and theory of social norms. After an overview of Schütz‟ work, we maintain that these attitudes, like any of norm conformity or transgression, are agentive or pragmatic engagement primordially provoked by an immediate perception of the social quality of an existential relation to be hegemonic in a social group or “milieu”. We call this axiological content of the relation a normative quality (qualité de norme). It draws from the direct apperception of a typical social relation through a cue that indicates the presence of an alter ego with whom to perform the relation in a manner that appeal a typical conduct in a functional relation toward alter in this particular situation. We call this cue of alter‟s presence a sociality cue (indice de socialité), and because of its participation in a functional relation in a way we slightly criticize Schütz, we call it more precisely a sociality factor (facteur de socialité). With Schütz‟ help, we manage to redefine social norms around the idea of a relevancy between a perceived situation and a typical conduct. And this scheme of relevance takes the peculiar structure of a sign relation. So social norms themselves are organized around apperceptive, appresentative, referential and contextual scheme, displaying independent thematic, interpretative and motivational functions within consciousness. And because the relation of the agent toward the expressive sphere of conducts and speech proceeds under different strata of consciousness, we can talk about an horizontal process of perceptive integration rooted in prepredicativeness and following a vertical path upward to ideation, abstractization, generalization, formalization, algebrification, and downward back to sensory-motor schemes, stabilizing in this way learned competences in a social „milieu‟ and, consequently, stabilizing cultural patterns around socials norms in a concrete way. Concrete here means in such a way that the sign structure of the situation itself engage the agent‟s experience toward a norm performance.(ISP 3) -- UCL, 201