Le Bêtisier du sociologue

We sociologists are paid to be intelligent. Which does not preclude us from sometimes saying some silly things.This book was written to offer readers a directory of the reasons for such blunders : from a taste for generalizations to the need to defend one's opinions, which sometimes makes "committed intellectuals" commit a blunder, such as believing in backworlds plotting behind our back, reasoning errors, and even rhetorical manipulations that confuse their authors as much as their readers. Paradoxically, there is even a certain disinterest is the real world, which causes us to modestly glance away when facts are being considered and, also, on a deeper level, the fear of being alone, which induces people to think “like us.”Any reader who enjoys mind teasers will find a few examples of them in this little directory, but no names (at least not those of living authors): one does not have to be unkind to point out blunders.Nathalie Heinich, a sociologist at the CNRS, has penned many articles and works on art, feminine identity and the history of social sciences, which include: Être artiste (Klincksieck, 1995), La Gloire de Van Gogh (Minuit, 1991), États de femme (Gallimard, 1996), La Sociologie de Norbert Elias (La Découverte, 1997), Le Triple jeu de l'art contemporain (Minuit, 1998), Être écrivain (La Découverte, 2000), L'Élite artiste (Gallimard, 2005), and Pourquoi Bourdieu (Gallimard, 2007).