The aim of this presentation is to demonstrate the value of phenomenology as a form of the widely used "sociology of critique", the kind of sociology for which moral values play a crucial role in explaining actions – as they do in the solidarity economy, the field analyzed. Contrary to interpretations of justifications as moral toolkits unconsciously mobilized by actors about practices whose real reasons lie elsewhere (as in the Bourdieu's sociology), I suggest that the sociology of critique’s notion of “grammar” is useful for articulating the normative moral elements that motivate specific actions and justifications. Il will try to show how taking the actors themselves seriously – the sociology of critique’s motto – can yield important insights for sociology. But then we face a problem within the field that the sociology of critique can’t resolve alone: there sometimes appears to be a contradiction between actors’ actions and their justifications. The Scheler's phenomenology (inspired by Husserl) can help us to understand these justifications at a deeper level as expressions of fundamental ways of relating to the world. In this sense phenomenology is useful to a moral sociology of critique because it helps to find a solution to the “contradiction” that the sociology of critique left unsolved.