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‘Epistemological dependency’—cognitive relativism in development thinking
Author(s) -
Gonçalves Bianca Többe
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/jid.1299
Subject(s) - relativism , postmodernism , positivism , epistemology , praise , hegelianism , politics , developmentalism , realm , philosophy , sociology , social science , psychology , law , political science , social psychology
Nowadays fashionable postmodernism entered the realm of development studies as post‐development. Although post‐development has been widely criticised on account of its political and economic romanticism, many critics nevertheless wrongly praise the methodological ‘challenge’ posed by post‐developmentalism. It will be argued that postmodernism's cognitive relativism cannot be a serious approach to investigate development problems. A closer look at the epistemological divide within the social sciences (Hegelianism vs. positivism) helps to understand why postmodernism's cognition attracts even many of its critics and why universal reason needs to be defended. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.