<b>The importance of ‘subjective' discourses in human sciences</b>

• Sugiman Toshio

  Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University

Bibliographic Information

Other Title

• <b>人間科学における主観的言説の重要性</b>

Abstract

Researchers and scholars in a variety of fields produce knowledge in the human sciences through collaborative practice with their subjects while researchers in the natural sciences produce knowledge through observation of objects that are separate from them. Having defined the role of sciences, natural or human, as enrichment of discursive worlds, we examined the difference between the two clusters of scientific efforts from the viewpoint of discourse informed by a theory of language and judgment by the Japanese philosopher, Wataru Hiromatsu (1993-1994).In his theory, language has four functions: indication, description, expression, and activation.Linguistic judgment is classified into perceptual judgment in which concrete phenomena are indicated and conceptual judgment in which abstract concepts are indicated.<br>　　　In this paper, the discursive world was conceptualized in terms of two parameters, one was ‘depersonalized/quasi-depersonalized/personal' and the other was ‘perceptual/conceptual.' Personal discourse includes all four functions listed above while depersonalized discourse uses two: indication and description. Quasi-depersonalized discourse has the same two functions as depersonalized discourse, but the two functions reflect cultural and historically tacit assumptions.<br>　　　We argue that a discursive world consists of depersonalized perceptual/conceptual discourses, thus objective discourses, in natural sciences whereas the discursive world of the human sciences consists of quasi-depersonalized or personal perceptual/conceptual, thus subjective discourses, in human sciences.This schism demonstrates that there is a division of labor between the two clusters of science in their joint activities and that the subjective discourse is essential and plays a critically important role in human sciences.

Journal

• Journal of 'Group Dynamics'

  Journal of 'Group Dynamics' 26 (0), 1-13, 2009

  Japan Institute for Group Dynamics

Keywords

• subjective discourse
• human sciences
• natural sciences
• personal/depersonalized discourse
• perceptual/conceptual discourse

Details

• CRID: 1390001205484782976
• NII Article ID: 130004624410
• DOI: 10.11245/jjgd.26.1
• ISSN: 21854718
• Text Lang: ja
• Data Source:
  • JaLC
  • CiNii Articles
  • KAKEN
• Abstract License Flag: Disallowed