Science of Man & Human Professions (Vol. 3)

This book is available in French only.

By distinguishing between the general and the universal, Adrien Morel continues his reflection on the fault line he addressed in the previous volumes: first between relativism and relativity, then between empiricism and engineering. It is the same boundary, the same opposition, the same antagonism that can be found in every field where the human being is at stake and where an attempt is made to theorise it.

This alternative is therefore encountered not only in the sciences, but also in society. Among several examples, the author focuses in particular on the link between the professions of care and the field of politics. It begins with the very definition of mental illness. Is the patient simply someone who is not like the others, someone who differs from the general case? In that case, marginal figures and dissidents can quickly find themselves psychiatrised. Totalitarian regimes take advantage of this, while well-meaning Western voices are outraged in the name of human rights.

Adrien Morel shows us that contesting the excesses of a logic and scientifically questioning the logic that leads to those excesses are two very different approaches. Unfortunately, humanism is content with the former.

The alternative concerns the way in which Man is defined, and what is at stake is a new humanism.

If it wishes to preserve its place in history, the homeland of humanism, human rights and the universal must begin by ceasing to confuse the general with the universal.