Learning outcomes

• To discern the specificity of the humanities in relation to the natural and material sciences (points of convergence and divergence in terms of their objects, methods, practices, issues) • To understand the differences and links between disciplines in the humanities (sociology, history, ethnology, etc.) and also with philosophy • To pose in a precise and nuanced way some fundamental questions constitutive of the human sciences: the selfformalisation of the object, the anthropological circularity, the construction of appropriate methods • To measure how these questions are posed in different disciplines taken as examples: ethnology, psychology, psychoanalysis, linguistics, sociology Cross-cutting competences • Adopt an epistemological and critical view of the issues addressed (by identifying their modes of elaboration, their scope and their limits) • To measure the importance of the dialogue between the human sciences, its relevance, its usefulness and some of its privileged paths (here between the psychological sciences and the criminological and legal sciences) • Become familiar with in-depth reading of texts from the fields studied • Produce a work of personal appropriation, questioning and reflection on issues proces sed

Goals

Introduce the student to the following questions, which they should be able to answer at the end of the course: 1) When and how did the 'humanities' emerge and develop historically? 2) how do they each epistemologically construct their (human, 'self-formalised') object? 3) how are researchers and practitioners in these disciplines 'involved' in their work ('anthropological circularity')? 3) What specific methods do they develop that take into account 'anthropological circularity'? 4) How do they relate to each other?

Content

The course deals with these questions by opening up to a few disciplines or sub-disciplines of the human sciences more familiar to the course holder: sociology, ethnology, psychology, linguistics, psychoanalysis, not without evoking or opening up to other disciplinary domains in the same field. I. We begin by showing how these disciplines built up their common and respective fields at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. II. We then pose epistemologically the triple question of 1) the construction of the object, 2) the anthropological circularity linking researcher and object and, on this double basis, 3) the construction of the method. III. The course then illustrates how these three questions are posed in different fields (in sociology, ethnology, psychology, linguistics, psychoanalysis).

Assessment method

Written examination including two questions, one of which requires the student to articulate the material studied in the course with his/her own discipline of study.

Sources, references and any support material

Parallel reading of a basic work is required: Jean-Claude QUENTEL, Les fondements des sciences humaines, Erès, Ramonville Sainte Agne, 2007. In addition, texts are given for each of the disciplines covered.

Language of instruction

Français