Repositioning interpretative social science after postmodernism: Understanding, interpretation and self

Abstract

With the advent of Postmodernism there is a widespread disbelief in the philosophy of the subject. The 'Cogito' that propelled the Modernist conceptions of truth and certainty seems to be no more available with the demise of the subject/author. This then poses a challenge to Interpretative social sciences as with the "death of the author", the career of interpretative social sciences needs to be refashioned. The paper attempts to portray the trajectory of interpretative social sciences beginning with the methodical interpretation of Dilthey, passing through the philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer and reaches Ricoeur's hermeneutics. In doing so, we claim that the Postmodern challenge to interpretative social sciences, to a large extent, is preempted in the course of development of hermeneutics.