Reflexivity

There is a beautiful image for the intellectual metaphor of reflection, which has been so central ever since the Enlightenment: thinking with an added eye (Johann Gottlieb Fichte). It is definitely in accordance with this when Alvin Gouldner speaks of “reflexive sociology” and Jürgen Habermas of the “communicative society.” In talk of the “self-referentiality of the systems” (Luhmann), on the other hand, the different aspect of the relationship to the “self” occupies the center of attention. On this contrast between knowledge and not-knowing, consciousness and non-consciousness, Bourdieu occupies a mediating position. He conceives of reflexivity as systematic reflection on the unconscious presuppositions (categories) of our knowledge.