Social Ontology and Varieties of Interpretation

A Hermeneutic Critique of Searle

Bibliographic Data

ID10927293
AuthorsHans-Herbert Kögler (0000-0003-0321-4090, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL, USA), Hans‐herbert Kögler (University of North Florida, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume48
Issue2
Pages192-217
Publication date2018-03-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhilosophy of the Social Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0048-3931 • E-ISSN: 1552-7441
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0048393117742336
OpenAlexW2771036862
LanguageEN
References cited12

The essay probes the limits of social ontology as a grounding project for interpretation and explanation in the social sciences. The argument proceeds by challenging the exemplary and influential ontology of John Searle by means of Jim Bohman’s hermeneutic approach. While both share the interest in establishing the validity basis of social-scientific claims, Bohman reconstructs in this regard the situated standpoint of the hermeneutic interpreter, in contrast to Searle’s building block approach to social reality. A careful analysis of Bohman’s argumentation reveals the need for differentiating a variety of interpretive stances, which leads back to important revisions of the intentionality-based social ontology of Searle. The discussion results in the need to ground methodological pluralism in a universal hermeneutics of interpretive capabilities to safeguard the social sciences against relativistic as well as metaphysical challenges

Argumentation theory · Epistemology · Hermeneutics · Interpretation (philosophy) · Interpreter · Linguistics · Ontology · Philosophy of science · Pluralism (philosophy) · Social epistemology · Social ontology · Sociology · Computer Science · Critical Realism in Sociology · Embodied and Extended Cognition · Philosophy · Social Representations and Identity

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub