Realism or Relativism for Marketing Theory and Research: A Comment on Hunt's “Scientific Realism”

Abstract

Hunt's 1990 interpretation of scientific realism is compared with the relativistic/constructionist view previously introduced in this journal. Though some similarities are found, the two views differ most strikingly in terms of the nature of reality, the nature of truth, and the value of the concept of incommensurability. Several implications are offered for marketing scientists about what difference it makes which view they accept. However, the author concludes that philosophically oriented marketing theorists need to further demonstrate the value of their work for practicing marketing scientists.