Cognitive Science and Hermeneutic Explanation: Symbiotic or Incompatible Frameworks?

No less than causal explanations, explanations in terms of meanings or interpretations must be validated. But how can an arguably interpretative framework such as psychoanalysis choose between equally plausible interpretations when all it can validate them with is further interpretations? Three possible solutions to this hermeneutic circle are described: the rationalist, the postmodernist, and the empiricist. Empiricist cognitive science already utilizes both causal and interpretative discourse in its own explanations; the approach is frequently an attempt to demonstrate that some interpretative explanations are justified because they accurately reflect an underlying reality beyond interpretations. This suggests that cognitive science could serve as an objective "anchor" for hermeneutic explanations in psychoanalysis. It is argued, however, that by privileging science over cognition, cognitive science ultimately represents the negation of interpretative knowledge rather than its justification.