Concept commun et concept analogique de compromis : ‘‘un air de famille’’

Compromise as a commonsense concept and as an analogical concept: “family likenesses”. A practical epistemological reflection
Should we consider the concept of compromise only in the presence of partners willing to negotiate and who both accept to make concessions in order to arrive at some form of agreement? Is it appropriate to talk of compromise when facing abstract entities or categories of opposing ideas? This article explores what would be necessary in order to be able to establish a link between commonsense compromise and analogical compromise, the two accepted meanings of the concept. Its ambition is to construct two operational concepts capable of rendering intelligible the multiple realities of compromise. Starting from the lexical field of the term compromise, an operational theoretical concept is constructed. The compromise is considered from its commonsense perspective and from its varied uses in relation to its different contexts in order to determine its principal specific characteristics. Finally, the concept of grammar is used for identifying what is shared by the two concepts and for establishing the foundations of a reflection on the issue of the social construction of compromise