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Bridging Incommensurate Discourses

A Response to Mackay

University of New Hampshire

Mackay (2003) argues that the meaning-making literature places an emphasis on meaning from a `meaning as salience' perspective, which he claims constructionists use, illogically, to support an anti-realist view. In response, first, this article attempts to articulate language (from a constructionist stance) as an engaged activity, not a tool used to talk about the world. It is the discursive emphasis on language as an activity, as opposed to the semiotic emphasis on linguistic systems as a means through which we obtain knowledge, that positions constructionists differently vis-à-vis issues of truth, reality, meaning and objectivity. Second, this article attempts to perform constructionism-in-action by offering a way to bridge incommensurate discourses in such a manner that we can create meaningful and useful ways of going on together.

Key Words: interactive moment • language as activity • meaning • persuasion • psychotherapy • realist/anti-realist • situated activity • social construction

Theory & Psychology, Vol. 13, No. 3, 387-396 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/0959354303013003005


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