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The place of the sciences of man in the system of sciences 35
In the field of logic, which, as wil be seen later (under 6), cannot be entirely
dissociated from psycho-sociological factors, logical empiricism has been led
to present logico-mathematical structures as the expression of mere language, as
general syntax and semantics, while authors not attached to this school see in
natural logic the unfolding of operations which thrust their roots as far as the
general co-ordination of actions at a level much deeper than that of language.
These conflicts between philosophical schools, due to ideological influences,
are yet sometimes fruitful, and more helpful than harmful to the development
of the sciences of man.'3 It is certain, for example, that American theories of
learning, inspired by empiricism, played a positive rale, firstly by pushing to
its extreme limits a type of interpretation which it was worthwhile to exploit
thoroughly, and then by encouraging a number of studies on neglected aspects
of this form of association. Similarly, logical empiricism, by dissociating syn-
thetic or experimental judgements too brutally from analytical or logico-mathe-
matical judgements, provoked reactions from the logicians (like W. V. Quine)
or psychologists, whose studies have enriched our knowledge even in terms of
the problems raised by the empiricists themselves when they sought to place
logico-mathematical contructivism in doubt.
In short, this first example sheds immediate light on the advantages and
dangers of philosophical or ideological influences. The drawbacks would
doubtless predominate if there were uniformity among the various trends or an
absence of discussion and co-operation among the schools. As long, however, as
we are dealing with problems formulated in terms of possible verification through
experiment or formalization, knowledge can only benefit from contrasts which,
as always in science, represent factors of progress.
11. This leads us to the dialectical philosophies, which play a fundamental part
in socialist ideologies, particularly in the fields of sociology and economics, and
in a general way in all disciplines involving the dimension of historical develop-
ment.
The case of dialectics, however, rather different from that of empiricism in
so far as, where the latter rightly stresses the importance of experience, it al-
ready gives it an interpretation unacceptable to non-empiricists ; whereas when
dialectics reveal the specific nature of historical developments, with their con-
tinual conflicts, oppositions and excesses, it often limits itself to revealing mech-
anisms which anyone could accept; for the dialectical spirit is doubtless
broader than attachment to any given school.
In contemporary dialectical movements it is in fact possible to distinguish
two currents, which we shall call immanent or methodological dialectics, and
more general or philosophical dialectics.
Spokesmen for the first of these currents see dialectics as an epistemological
attempt to elucidate common characteristics (or on the contrary characteristics
conflicting from one case to the other), all scientific efforts to assess develop-
ments taking pIace in time. Dialectics thus understood means therefore taking
stock of methods of interpretation actually used in certain biological, psycho-
genetic, economic and other studies. Being respectful of facts, dialectics may