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On Epistemology.
Epistemology, in the continental meaning of "Philosophy of the Sciences" has no direct effects indeed on the advancement of science. But it has an interest, which we propose to suggest, applying epistemology to the case of the social sciences. First, the idea of epistemology as a philosophical discipline, in contradistinction to a science, of the sciences is brought out. Then the specific character of the social sciences qua sciences is analysed, particularly with respect to the notion of explication. In a third section, fact and object in the sciences of man are examined, with a special view to characterize the nature and function in this domain of the concept of structure. The last two sections are devoted to the problem of the status of logical organisation and of normativity in those sciences.

To examine the problem of verification and application in the social sciences, we consider it on three levels : facts, hypotheses, theories, taking examples from Economies. Our general conclusion is that verifying and applying a piece of scientific knowledge fundamentally consists in testing a correlation between a system of objects and a system of operations.

Epistemology is, before and overall, a philosophical method and helps to understand the beliefs of social sciences. Despite the fact that epistemology could not be presented as a direct produce of sciences, it still helps to understand many ways of thinking science. Gilles-Gaston Granger explains in this article the main difficulties of using social sciences as away of explaining social behaviours and the deep need to rethink social sciences today as our world and our social behaviours are changing.