Le système d’Adam Smith

Résumé Fr En

L’objectif de cet article est de souligner qu’Adam Smith nous propose, au cours de son œuvre, un système complet rendant compte du fonctionnement et du devenir des sociétés humaines. Cette systématicité nous est perceptible en prenant acte du fait que Smith cherche à transposer certains principes newtoniens aux sciences humaines. La gravitation rendrait ainsi compte du fonctionnement statique des sociétés, de la formation des lois sociales et des prix. L’attraction définirait, pour sa part, le devenir historique des sociétés humaines qui tendraient naturellement, selon lui, vers une cité idéale.

In the Rules of Sociological Method, Durkheim gives an object to sociology by defining essentially the social fact as a social force. While he would logically have proposed methods inspired by physical sciences, Durkheim preferred to draw his inspiration from biology. He turns the sociologist into a “vivisectionist” of society. This transposition thus appears as a failed transposition of the methods of the natural sciences. It entails that Durkheim considers society as a body and not as a field of forces that would have allowed him to leave a methodology that would be too holistic. By this way, he could have taken into account both social forces but also individual forces. By taking Durkheim’s definition of social fact seriously, it opens up new research perspectives more suited to the complexity of contemporary societies.