A Paradigm for Causal Analysis

Abstract

LET ME begin with three assertions. First, causal analysis is an important and viable method for theory construction in sociology. Second, Merton variety of functional analysis in sociology is a unique method of theory construction and is major alternative to causal analysis. Third, inherent methodological difficulties in Mertonian functional ananalysis in sociology argument for its abandonment. first of above assertions constitutes my reason for this attempt to spell out a notion of causal analysis as a method for theory construction in sociology. appreciation of second and third assertions requires some discussion of work of Robert K. Merton and Kingsley Davis. Merton's classic methodological paradigm for functional analysis was put forth in Social Theory and Social Structure in 1949. A number of assertions prior to statement of paradigm imply that Merton saw functional analysis as a unique method of theory construction. He claimed that much had been accomplished with its use and much more could be expected. paradigm was offered as an explicit codification of procedures used by several sociologists and anthropologists. In this light, then, it is interesting to find that ten years later president of American Sociological Association was claiming that uniqueness of functional analysis in sociology was a myth. In paper titled The Myth of Functional Analysis as a Special Method in Sociology and Anthropology, Kingsley Davis (1959) argued that the definitions most commonly agreed upon functionalism synonymous with sociological analysis and non-functionalism synonymous with either reductionist theories or pure description. Davis went on to claim that ambiguities of special terminology of functionalism make myth that it is a special method a liability, and that myth should be abandoned. Davis' argument is essentially that of parsimony. If it can be shown that there are no differences between functional analysis and any other kind of analysis in sociology then it is clearly parsimonious to abandon