We need experimental research in cognitive neuroscience to reconsider interpretive methods. Foucault and his followers objected to empirical research on humans. The present critique of Foucault's Saussure-based conception of language derives from language conceptions supported by the latest experimental explorations of speech and visual recognition by neuroscientists. This critique is compatible with the concept of the “loosely structured actor” of practice theory as developed by Bourdieu, Giddens, Ortner, Sewell, and others. Besides being loosely structured, actors are also sites of emotional responses, as suggested by recent research in affective neuroscience. Interpretive methods that look beyond language to a larger array of phenomena once thought to be elements of “experience,” find substantial support in recent neuroscience research.
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