Rethinking Post Modernism: On Some Epistemic and Ethical Consequences of the Researcher's Committment to Postmodern Constructivism

This chapter focuses on some of the epistemological and ethical consequences of the researcher’s commitment to a contemporary post-modern theory on “language, reality & truth”. It will take a particular starting point: the meta-analysis of a typical post-modern analysis of narratives from the field. When these communicative events occur, different theories of “language”, different notions of “reality”, different conceptions of “truth” are at stake: every time researchers speak with their informants and every time they analyse discursive data they re-open the endless question of the relationships existing between language, reality and truth. The meta-analysis of this kind discursive data sheds light upon how many different theories of language are at stake during the research process and what the epistemic and ethical implications of this silent game actually are.