A recurring pattern in the development of major interdisciplinary theories in the social sciences reveals their dual ambition: to achieve empirical understanding of human realities and to offer visions for their radical transformation. This dual quest, deeply embedded in Western intellectual traditions, merges epistemological effort with a sotériological drive—a drive to overcome a foundational human “evil” and guide society toward redemption. Such theories systematically combine three metaphysical elements: an axiology (defining values and ends), an ontology (differentiating immutable from transformable properties), and an etiology (explaining the origin of social disorders). This structure underpins the conceptual works of key figures in twentieth-century French thought. Their cosmologies—whether grounded in anomie, symbolic domination, ecological collapse, or the entanglement of humans and non-humans—aspire to liberate, redeem, or save. Yet their epistemological legitimacy is contested: the risk is that visionary ambition may overshadow empirical rigor. Nonetheless, these cosmologies often drive innovation, shape paradigms, and meet societal demands for meaning and orientation, particularly in secularized societies where science substitutes theology. The future of social sciences, the text suggests, hinges on this tension: either remaining as producers of cosmologies, narrowing to empirical expertise, or becoming obsolete under external pressures. The challenge is to reconcile scientific humility with the social need for transformative imagination.
