This paper outlines the two major analytical profiles of the concept of trial in sociology– the sanction trial and the challenge trial – as well as their intellectual traditions. The sanction trial, whose primary origin is linked to the birth of modern science, has subsequently been developed in the framework of pragmatic philosophy, and then of pragmatic sociology. The challenge trial, whose primary sources are spiritual exercises and classical character education, was reformulated by the philosophy of existence and then by sociology. Based upon this argument, the article proposes a clarification of the specific stakes of each tradition , before concluding on their shared commitment to a contingent interpretation of social events.