Paper's abstract

Alban Bouvier, Obligation, Rationality and Sacred Quality. Paradigmatic Locations in Social Sciences
The absolute, if not sacred, character of some obligations, maybe of all obligations, challenges the analyses of rational type, whatever the nature of these may be. For is it really possible to reduce this emotional effect? And up to what point can, or must, one do it when wishing to protect the empirical relevance of the analysis? In order to solve these questions, the author differentiates, beside notions of economic rationality and pragmatic rationality, two more notions: that of an intrinsic rationality and that of a rationality in accordance with religious values that cannot be identified by simply referring to the Weberian notion of axiological rationality (Wertrationalität).

Key Words : obligation, rationalism, sacred, Weber
t. 44, 2000 : p. 93-108

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