Aims

A sociological and anthropological analysis of knowledge and sciences.

Main themes

This course will aim to deepen the analysis of knowledge as a socio-anthropological fact, and will lead on to an analysis of techno-scientific knowledge in contemporary societies.

Content and teaching methods

Content
1. A historical development of the sociology of knowledge and the sociology of sciences and technology. Through this development, the course will demonstrate the emergence and specificity of knowledge as an object of sociological analysis, and to express it in relation to the epistemology and philosophy of knowledge.
2. Analytical aspects of an approach to the sociology of knowledge; a specific analysis relating to the socio-anthropology of vectors of knowledge; perception, reason, memory and the imagination; an analysis of the role of significant supports (spoken words, writing, images and videos) in the production and circulation of knowledge; and an analysis of the forms and modes of existence of knowledge, of its circulation, of the social relationships in which it functions, and of the relationship between erudite knowledge and ordinary knowledge.
3. The points enumerated in the above paragraph will be followed by an analysis of techno-sciences as a mode of knowledge (reason, memory and imagination in the production of sciences); an analysis of scientific practice as a social practice carried out on the basis of a sociological analysis of erudite people, and an analysis of the social relationships of scientific production; and the social function of science analysed on the basis of three viewpoints (the contemporary role of techno-science in the orientation of the social future, the mode of social circulation of scientific knowledge, and the role pf science in the construction of collective imagination).
Methodology
A professorial course, and some work on materials.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Individual work to be discussed at the oral examination.
Bibliography of reference materials.
Individual and groups, if necessary.

Other credits in programs