Some Epistemological Issues in the Public Debate on Contemporary Antisemitism in France
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Abstract
During the last 15 years, the phenomenon of an increase in antisemitic acts in France has led to numerous commentaries, to people taking public stances, and to some preliminary university-based research studies. In this article, we formulate certain epistemological and moral issues that we always encounter sooner or later when we study antisemitism. By starting with certain elements of the public discussion in which a number of academics have participated, we wanted to raise awareness of the reasoning and logic of ideas connected to sociological practice. Among the number of entangled questions that the public debates let us glimpse, at least two of these call into question the practice of sociology. The first has to do with the negation of the reality of contemporary antisemitism. The second touches on a problem that is both moral and epistemological, and has to do with the problem of causal determinism. An individual is only responsible if he is free. If we think that individuals are determined by causes, we must accept to think them as not responsible. We think that it is by taking into account these two questions that a non-deterministic sociology could be developed. This article is dedicated to providing a brief answer to these questions.
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Volume/Issue
37
Page Number / Article Number
295-308
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Link to article including link to pdf, Some Epistemological Issues in the Public Debate on Contemporary Antisemitism in France
Bibliographic Information
Some Epistemological Issues in the Public Debate on Contemporary Antisemitism in France. 2017: 295-308. https://archive.jpr.org.uk/10.1007/s12397-017-9226-5
