Neill Gross versus Pierre Bourdieu. Strategy or Self-comprehension? Reflections on a false debate in Sociology of philosophy

Abstract

In his well-known monograph on Richard Rorty, published in 2008, the sociologist of philosophy Neill Gross, formulated, with the intention of correcting the «sociophilosophy» models proposed by Randall Collins and Pierre Bourdieu, a theory about the «self-concept» that the thinkers elaborate on themselves. That theory, quite influential, is based, among other things, on what we consider to be a wrong reading of Pierre Bourdieu’s work. First, the principles that guide Gross’s theory and its application in the monograph on Rorty are presented. In the second place, Gross’s thesis will be questioned, intending to exceed with his theory the explanatory model offered by Bourdieu in the field of Sociology of Philosophy, showing the distortions introduced in his reading of the French sociologist. Finally, a reinterpretation of Rorty’s trajectory will be suggested based on the bourdieusian theory of habitus and disregarding the notion of «intellectual self-concept» introduced by Gross.