UNIVERSITY OF NAMIBIA

LIZEL MUTELO 201207003 RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY

ASSIGNMENT 2

Explanation and Interpretation: three accounts
When we are dealing with human subjects, their forms of thought, their types of practice, what are the respective roles of explanation and interpretation, however finely or coarsely they are distinguished? This summary discusses three accounts that can help us understand the roles of explanation and interpretation in studying or dealing with human subjects and these are the exclusivism account, the inclusive account, and the interactionism account.
The exclusive account/position holds that interpretation and explanation exclude one another. The inclusive position maintains that explanation is and must be subordinated to interpretation. Inclusivists hold that the enterprise of interpretation always encapsulates explanatory pursuits. The interactionism account, proposes that interpretation and explanation inform each other. Novel interpretations employ the categories of theories already in place, whereas novel explanations depend upon the discovery of new theories which, in turn, depends upon the sort of reorganization of knowledge that interpretative pursuits involve. On the interactive view these two processes complement one another.
The Exclusivism Account
Exclusivism takes two forms, one emphasizing the centrality of explanation, the other the centrality of interpretation. The first group of exclusivists, consisting of behavioral psychologists, sociologists, and others, holds that the only methods for systematic inquiry are the methods of the natural sciences. The second, which focuses on interpretation exclusively holds that all inquiry is ultimately interpretive.
For the first group explanation excludes interpretation because human thought and