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Interpretive understanding is a radically humanistic enterprise

July 24, 2006 in theoretically speaking

The pursuit of interpretive understanding is radically humanistic. Plants and animals do not construct meanings in the same way human beings do. This is not to disparage the love of living nature or concern for animals but rather to assert that by coscientiously looking to the meaning-filled behavior of human beings, we cannot reduce humans to mere objects manipulated either by the force of external nature or by the internal force of psychic dynamics.

While meanings are not determinitive of human behavior (whatever I can think, I can do), they affect behavior in fundamental ways (what I think I can do, I will often try to do).

Meaning therefore structures human behavior. It can channel or constrain behavior in unexpected ways. Meaning bears fruit in unanticipated forms. The reconstruction of meaning-filled behavior embedded within contemporary, unquestionned social activity leads to surprising discoveries of the power of meaning in giving birth to human society.

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