Getting in touch: The metamethodology of a postmodern science of mental life

Abstract

In the past, much of modern science has been conducted from within a ‘mechanistic’ world view: the view 1) that ‘objective’ reality exists absolutely and apart from ind; 2) that the relations between all its parts are orderly, mechanical, causal, and necessary; and 3) that, because of its essentially passive nature, it can only be investigated by a one‐sided use of input‐output, cause and effect methods — in which observation is the main way in which data is gathered. But currently, there is a transition afoot, a movement from modern to postmodern science, a movement which, among its many other features, accepts both a much more ‘chaotic’ view of reality, or realities, as well as their ‘made’ nature. Central among the many other changes the movement involves, is a shift from the standpoint of the detached, theory‐testing onlooker, to the involved, interested, interpretative, procedure/testing, critical participant; associated with a shift from a one‐sided process of investigation (in which only investigators are active) to a two‐way, negotiated, multisensory interaction or transaction (in which both the investigated and investigators take part); a shift that elevates a certain aspect of our embodied practical knowledge in the intrinsically uncertain circumstances of everyday life to a position of primacy over theoretical knowledge. It is the form of these practical‐moral, two‐sided ways of knowing, and the linguistic ‘entrapments’ which prevent our recognition of their nature that is explored in this paper.