Against Reflexivity as an Academic Virtue and Source of Privileged Knowledge

Theory, Culture and Society 17 (3):26-54 (2000)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Reflexivity is a well-established theoretical and methodological concept in the human sciences, and yet it is used in a confusing variety of ways. The meaning of `reflexivity' and the virtues ascribed to the concept are relative to particular theoretical and methodological commitments. This article examines several versions of the concept, and critically focuses on treatments of reflexivity as a mark of distinction or source of methodological advantage. Although reflexivity often is associated with radical epistemologies, social scientists with more conventional leanings often speak of reflexivity as a methodological tool, substantive property of social systems, or source of individual enlightenment. Radical and conventional social scientists alike tend to stress the importance of being reflexive, as opposed to being unreflexive, but they do not share a coherent conception of what `being reflexive' means or entails. As an alternative to reflexive self-privileging, I recommend an ethnomethodological conception of reflexivity as an ordinary, unremarkable and unavoidable feature of action. The ethnomethodological conception does not support a particular theoretical or methodological standpoint by contrasting it to an `unreflexive' counterpart. It has little value as a critical weapon or source of epistemological advantage, which, in the present context, can have advantages of its own for promoting peace and epistemic democracy.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Neo-expressivism: avowals' security and privileged self-knowledge.Dorit Bar-On - 2008 - In Anthony Hatzimoysis (ed.), Self-Knowledge. Oxford University Press.
The role of reflexivity in understanding human understanding.Steven James Bartlett - 1992 - In Steven J. Bartlett (ed.), Reflexivity: A Source-Book in Self-Reference. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Distributors for the U.S. And Canada, Elsevier Science Pub. Co.. pp. 3--18.
Reflexivity: a source-book in self-reference.Steven James Bartlett (ed.) - 1992 - New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Distributors for the U.S. and Canada, Elsevier Science Pub. Co..
Externalism, slow switching and privileged self-knowledge.Hamid Vahid - 2003 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 66 (2):370-388.
Aquinas on Human Self-Knowledge.Therese Scarpelli Cory - 2013 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Privileged self-knowledge and externalism: A contextualist approach.Jakob Hohwy - 2002 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 83 (3):235-52.
Self-knowledge: Privileged in access or privileged in authority?Keya Maitra - 2005 - Southwest Philosophy Review 21 (2):101-114.
Platonic knowledge and the standard analysis.Lloyd P. Gerson - 2006 - International Journal of Philosophical Studies 14 (4):455 – 474.

Analytics

Added to PP
2014-02-02

Downloads
55 (#259,775)

6 months
7 (#175,814)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

References found in this work

Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience.Erving Goffman - 1979 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 39 (4):601-602.
Lectures on Conversation.Harvey Sacks & Gail Jefferson - 1995 - Human Studies 18 (2):327-336.
Knowledge and Social Imagery.David Bloor - 1979 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 30 (2):195-199.
Laboratory Life. The Social Construction of Scientific Facts.Bruno Latour & Steve Woolgar - 1982 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 13 (1):166-170.
On Certainty.Ludwig Wittgenstein, G. Anscombe, G. H. Von Wright, A. C. Danto & M. Bochner - 1992 - Philosophical Quarterly 42 (167):261-262.

View all 29 references / Add more references