The objective of this paper is to renew epistemological interrogation of the social sciences. In particular, the author questions these sciences' philosophico-historico-political bases — their premises —, the place they have occupied since their creation, and the factors which have led to their current crisis. After having examined their history to demonstrate the direct relationship between the construction of their object and approach, the author points out that the evolution of the world, above all since 1945, and more specifically since the 1970s, has been such that the basic reality of their existence and nomolithic disciplinary practices has disappeared, which has placed them in a situation of profound existential crisis. It is from this reality which has placed the discipline's researchers and thinkers in a difficult situation that the paper's title is drawn: "The social sciences are on the wane. What kind of phoenix will rise from their ashes?" The final section of the paper explores some of the parameters of an answer to this question. Among other things, the author emphasizes the new rapprochement between the social sciences and the natural sciences and the need for space-time to become a central concern for the social sciences, something which they removed from their object at the moment of their founding.