Muhtin dieđafilosofalaš váttisvuođat vuođđudit earenoamáš álgoálbmotmetodologiija

Čoahkkáigeasut

A central idea of Cartesian philosophy is its theory of knowledge and the belief that epistemology is a foundational enterprise. It is epistemology that would ultimately make clear just what made knowledge claims valid and the degree of validity they could lay claim to. Validity is something we can generate for ourselves by ordering our thoughts correctly according to methods founded on epistemology.

Similar ideas are formulated by defenders of a peculiar indigenous methodology in social sciences, in order to justify investigations from a culturally internal perspective. In the mean time epistemology has lost its reputation since the heyday of logical empiricism and the whole epistemological enterprise is refuted by criticism from different directions. The main arguments of philosophical hermeneutics have been integrated into social sciences after the ‘interpretative turn’, and the problem of the justification of the scientific validity of social sciences is even more precarious, and the social sciences stands in danger of collapsing into political moralizing and hollow rhetoric. As an alternative to claims on a priori epistemic superiority the validation of social sciences has to rely on practical argumentation.