Sociologies (May 2012)
Faut-il faire la sociologie des singes ?
Abstract
Drawing its examples from the field of ethology and primatology, this paper brings three points to the debate on the naturalization in sociology. The first one insists on the importance of telling apart what is innate and what is not in the “innate social abilities” that are hypothesized by Kaufmann & Cordonier. The second one shows that when scientists see the animal communication as purely informative, they miss the fact that animals are first of all real beings engaged in affective interactions. They consequently wrongfully end up with animals that “calculate” or “make choices”. The third point looks at some recent work about cooperation in Apes and shows that behavioural scientists tend to assign to the animals themselves social knowledge that is actually situated in the situation. The paper concludes about the boundaries and limitations of biology when it comes to explain social facts in animals. It suggests that social sciences should begin to explore empirically this no man’s land where social and biological facts interact. Doing so, social sciences could go towards specifying “what” is inherited in social competences, and limiting the evolutionary hold on social facts.
