A Different Approach to the Social Sciences

The evolution of the epistemology of the social sciences is discussed, with particular reference to the following problems: (1) The model of causality derived from the natural sciences is increasingly unfitted to the understanding of what is called "affinity," ie, relations of conformity w...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Análise social 1987-01, Vol.23, p.7-13
Main Author: Freund, Julien
Format: Article
Language:Portuguese
Subjects:
Causal Models
Epistemology
Social Sciences
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The evolution of the epistemology of the social sciences is discussed, with particular reference to the following problems: (1) The model of causality derived from the natural sciences is increasingly unfitted to the understanding of what is called "affinity," ie, relations of conformity without any specific causality. (2) The relationship between the comprehensible & the incomprehensible, between science & metaphysics, has not been defined. (3) Preconceptions & ideological a priori, which do not concern scientific experiment & vitiate empirical analysis, have tended to spread into sociology. It is concluded that no sociological analysis will be valid unless these problems have been considered. Modified HA
ISSN:0003-2573