ABSTRACT
A cognitive research programme tries to provide a scientific explanation of how understanding occurs and works in everyday life. In general, ‘meaning’ is viewed as the critical explanatory research unit that distinguishes the social sciences from the natural sciences (Silverman 1985:43, Bhaskar 1979:203). Knowledge and understanding, or cognition, is one critical variable in behaviour. The outcomes of reasoning are understood in cognitive research as knowledge, as the subjective product of making sense or meaning.
