On human beings, computers and representational-computational vs hermeneutic-dialogical approaches to human cognition and communication

Journal/Book: Cult Psychol. 1998; 4: 6 Bonhill Street, London EC2A 4PU, England. Sage Publications Ltd. 213-233.

Abstract: Current representational-computational approaches to human cognition and communication, it is argued, represent natural-scientifically coached ramifications of an analytic-rationalist philosophical tradition concerned with formal features of 'pure' and de-contextualized human reason. Scholars conducting their inquiries within hermeneutic-dialogically founded traditions, on the other hand, are seriously concerned with the inherent perspectivity of human cognition and the embeddedness of linguistically mediated meaning in pervasive background conditions and fluctuating human interests and concerns. The epistemological gulf between analytic-rationalist and hermeneutic-dialogical approaches is reflected in their answers to the question whether the researcher's and informant's mastery of meaning 'from within' should be considered a cumbersome residual or an opaque, yet indispensable resource. What has to be dealt with as a residual to get rid of in attempts at externalization and machine representation of human knowledge and reasoning, it is suggested, may constitute an indispensable resource in any potentially emancipatory study of language and mind.

Note: Article Rommetveit R, Univ Oslo, Inst Psychol, Postboks 1094, N-0317 Oslo, NORWAY

Keyword(s): communication; dialogue; hermeneutics; information processing; intersubjectivity; semantics; PSYCHOLOGY

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