Lopez-Silva, P. 2013. Realidades, construcciones y dilemas Cinta moebio 46: 9-25

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Realities, Constructions and Dilemmas. A philosophical revision to the social constructionism

Mg. Pablo López-Silva (pablo.lopez.silva@gmail.com) Department of Philosophy, The University of Manchester (Manchester, United Kingdom)

Abstract

The following paper presents and discuses the epistemological premises of one of the relativistic expressions of the so-called constructivism i.e. the social constructionism. Firstly, we trace constructivism’s theoretical origins and later, we distinguish the main ideas of Kenneth Gergen’s social constructionist proposal. The analysis is done in the following way: (a) we analyse the epistemological premises and the philosophical problems arising from them, and (b) we analyse the problematic impact these premises have in the praxis of social sciences. Finally, we conclude that the exclusion of clear philosophical distinctions inside social constructionism undermines social constructionism’s plausibility.

Key words: constructivism, social constructionism, Gergen, praxis, postmodernism.