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(2016) Human Studies 39 (1).
On the very idea of social construction
deconstructing Searle's and Hacking's critical reflections
Martin Endreß
pp. 127-146
The starting point of the following inquiry addresses John Searle's and Ian Hacking's most prominent critique of contemporary "constructionism" in the 1990s. It is stimulated by the astonishing fact that neither Hacking nor Searle take into account Peter Berger's and Thomas Luckmann's classical essay and sociological masterpiece The Social Construction of Reality in their contributions. Critically revisiting Searle's and Hacking's critique on the so-called constructivist approach, the article demonstrates that both authors have failed to put forth a sociologically valid understanding of the approach in question. The following analysis aims to deconstruct the conceptualizations offered by Searle and Hacking, and to reconstruct and defend the original sense of the term "social construction" as most prominently introduced by Berger and Luckmann to sociology, and social sciences in general.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/s10746-016-9395-3
Full citation:
Endreß, M. (2016). On the very idea of social construction: deconstructing Searle's and Hacking's critical reflections. Human Studies 39 (1), pp. 127-146.
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