Bakhtin, Mikhail "Toward a Methodology for the Human Sciences"

From RhetorClick

Ferdinand de Saussure was a great influence on Mikhail Bakhtin, author of the article “Toward a Methodology for the Human Sciences.” Here Bakhtin outlies a variety of theories that aid understanding in the non-exact human sciences. For one, he contrasts the idea of a subject (or personality) with a thing, saying that understanding of a subject must be dialogic, i.e., based on contextual meaning (unlike the monological dialectic of the natural sciences). Through dialogic contact, one’s own words and another’s words join to form a personality, which requires a semantic context. Bakhtin also discusses reification (becoming a thing) and personification (becoming a personality), saying neither can be reached in full.