Discuter l’indiscutable: Raison statistique et espace public

Abstract

Public space, in which public problems may be submitted to debate, has a tight relationship with the existence of statistical information available for all. But this information requires itself a space of equivalence and a common language, marked by the State and the law. Therefore, statistics intervene in different ways in the social debate, because the equivalences themselves and the language by which they are created can be questioned. This implies that statistical objects have to be thought, at the same time, as constructions and as realities, as being conventional and as being solid. Three paths are proposed to criticize statistical reason, as distinct as possible from objectivism and relativism.