Reflexive anthropology: On the method-guided construction of premises in social theory

Abstract

The notion of reflexive anthropology follows Bourdieu's concept of reflexive sociology. It argues that it is necessary to take a reflexive look at the “unconscious” of sociological research in order to overcome epistemological limitations. At the same time, however, Bourdieu fails to identify scientific research practice as part of a differentiated society that is structurally dependent on the cult of the individual (Durkheim). Therefore reflexive sociology needs to be complemented by a reflexive anthropology that analyzes the human person and its normative special status as an institution of a horizontally differentiated society. This leads to the question that I explore in this article: what follows from the fact that the anthropological premises of sociological research affirm the anthropological conception of modern sociation? The fact that sociology reproduces the anthropological certainties of modern society has been repeatedly criticized. Based on these arguments, I present a critical procedure that allows us to work out whether and to what extent the general conceptual presuppositions of research reproduce modern anthropocentrism. Finally, I outline a social theory that makes it possible to render the modern self-conception an object of study.