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(2012) After postmodernism, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

The pragmatics of interpretation

Jan Faye

pp. 82-107

Explanation provides understanding. Interpretation does the same. But many scholars have considered interpretation to be unique to the humanities. Interpretation, they maintain, is associated with intuition, empathy, and subjective insight, whereas explanation delivers objective information which scientists can test and bring under intersubjective control. Interpretation is more or less an inexplicable process mixed with feelings, hunches, subjective interests, and God knows what. Consequently, interpretation is much more context-sensitive than explanation and helps us to draw the boundary between the "hard" sciences and the 'soft" sciences.

Publication details

DOI: 10.1057/9780230355484_5

Full citation:

Faye, J. (2012). The pragmatics of interpretation, in After postmodernism, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 82-107.

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