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  1. Interpretivism

    Interpretivism Interpretivism Three Forms of Interpretivism Interpretivism has formed many of the above critiques of naturalism. Interpretivism rests upon idealism.

  2. Exploring Research Methodologies: Positivism And Interpretivism

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    what knowledge is and there are two broad approaches within epistemology: 1. Positivism 2. Interpretivism When choosing what method of research you are going to take

  4. Sociological Theory: Positivistic, Interpretative, And Critical

    but a relationship between changing variables. 2.Epistemology. The epistemology of interpretivism is the subjective.The inquirer in interpretisim becomes part of

  5. Positionality

    for human beings and is constructed by intentional behaviour and actions. Intentional interpretivism approaches meaning as intentional states of individual minds,

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Interpretivism

Submitted by pazdioch on June 15, 2008

Category: Social Issues
Words: 2979 | Pages: 12
Views: 188
Popularity Rank: 74,178
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Interpretivism
Three Forms of Interpretivism

Interpretivism has formed many of the above critiques of naturalism. Interpretivism rests upon idealism. Idealism holds the view that the world is the creation of mind; the world is interpreted through the mind; e.g., classificatory schemes (such as the classificatory scheme of species into mammals, insects, birds, etc., or of the human population into caucasians, negroids and mongoloids). Given this, we cannot know the ‘true’ nature of the object world, separate from our perception of it.

Weber believed that things that exist in space are merely appearances, and have no independent existence from our thoughts. The social world cannot be described without investigating how individuals use language and symbols to construct what social practices and experiences mean for them. For only when we come to understand the individual experience and its subjective interpretation that we begin to understand why social actors behave in particular ways. For example, Weber argued that the emergence of capitalism could partially be explained by the ‘doctrine of predestination’. Weber stated that only when we understood social actors’ meanings and their interpretations that we could explain why Protestant countries were first to develop capitalist relations and practices. It is irrelevant whether the Calvinists were correct in their beliefs about predestination, what is important is that their beliefs made them act in a particular manner. The social world becomes the creation of the purposeful actions of conscious agents. For Weber, no social explanation was complete unless it could adequately describe the role of meanings in human actions.

In the interpretivist’s methodology, the key is to understand (or verstehen), not to explain and predict as in the naturalist’ methodology. As a method, understanding must begin from the presupposition that there is at least some...

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