Metatheoretical Dilemmas of the Social Sciences: The Case of Sociology

Abstract

This chapter discusses the metatheoretical dilemmas of the social sciences. Judging by the level of critical self-consciousness, the social sciences are the most developed disciplines indeed. Criticism and self-criticism is certainly indispensable for the progress of knowledge, but different forms of criticism are by no means equally fruitful in this respect. If one reflects on the paradox that, in spite of the overabundant criticism, the social sciences are still far from scientific maturity; one of the possible explanations may be found precisely in the predominance of the less fruitful forms of criticism to the neglect of more promising ones. The chapter focuses on the discipline of sociology and is relevant for other social–scientific disciplines. Two alternative emphases are possible if one is looking critically at the sociological enterprise. First, there is the surface-level of problems, methods, results, and applications. Second, there is the depth-level of underlying assumptions; premises of the methodological, epistemological, and ontological type that are logically, necessarily presupposed by the given practice of the discipline, whether its practitioners are conscious of that or not.