When acting is thinking

This article aims at identifying the contribution of sociology to a social conception of mind. It does so by seeking to justify the idea that “acting is thinking”. To start with, we examine the validity of two postulates: the externalism of the mental and the holism of meanings, in their sociological version. The article then analyses the three regimes of the practical activity of knowledge: certitude, conviction, and directedness. Finally, the article shows how analytical sociology renders observable the use that individuals make of criteria of objectivation (of objects, of events or the motivations of others) which organize these “direct inferential practices” which are immediately triggered in the course of action in order to ensure the accomplishment of coordination of action. This article thus makes it possible to confront the propositions of a sociological theory of knowledge with those of cognitive science.