INTRODUCTION

In the same way that war is a thing too important to be left to soldiers, sociology is something too serious to be abandoned to sociologists and their debates. Is this discipline, which has made an undeniable contribution to the progress of western thought, threatened with an irreversible decline? Its future certainly does not look as rosy as it did. During the period 1950 to 1970 sociology experienced extensive development. The number of students, teachers, and researchers increased rapidly. The opinion of sociologists was sought-if not always followed. They took the roles of experts and consultants. Corporations and public administrations were open to them, not without a certain reluctance, however. The most active had the flattering feeling that they were involved in the great movements and affairs of society. Why then was this rapid rise followed by such a swift decline? If we put on one side the historical events which, in the eyes of the public particularly in France, led to the image of our discipline being linked with the most extreme forms of university discontent, it is possible to see the decline being essentially due to two reverses, each caused by the excessive pretensions of certain sociologists. First, many sociologists sought to present themselves as ‘thinkers’—or rushed, with too evident satisfaction, into such an unrewarding role. At the same time, they had not the slightest hesitation in claiming for sociology the status of a ‘science’, thus giving themselves the right to the same privileges and the same considerations as their colleagues in the exact sciences, without feeling hindered from insistently claiming the traditional mission of general culture and philosophy, namely to provide an answer to the widest questions concerning social organization and the role of man in society.