Les paradigmes à l'épreuve de l'air du temps. Quand le discours des sciences sociales sur l'exception chinoise légitimait la révolution

Paradigms and the spirit of the times. When social science discourse of Chinese exceptionalism Justified the revolution Beyond theories, scientific paradigms agree with the spirit of the times. They have the strength of the obvious. Their normal use demands no explanations or demonstrations. They share the characteristics of beliefs and organize the understanding of reality in the scholarly community in which they prevail. At the beginning of the 1950s, American sinology, accused by Senator McCarthy of losing China, saw its competence challenged. The totalitarian paradigm structured knowledge on China for 20 years. By 1960 the viability and authenticity of the regime were no longer in doubt. It was perceived as a major threat to US security. Studies on contemporary China were invented in order to improve knowledge and understanding of the innovative Chinese totalitarianism. In the 1970s, the totalitarian paradigm was forsaken by the scholarly community and replaced by the revolutionary paradigm. The Chinese revolution gained in legitimacy and universality and was understood by a large portion of American research as bringing, through a new experiment, a precious contribution to the history of mankind, providing new authority to the discourse on Chinese exceptionalism

China · Honor · Humanities · Legitimacy · Political science · Politics · Sinology · Sociology · Chinese history and philosophy · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Law · Philosophy · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

• Faire l'histoire de la science politique n'est pas neutre. À propos de Political Science in History

  Yves Viltard•Revue française de science…•1999

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