The role of methodology in models of scientific change
pp. 275-297
in: Gonzalo Munvar (ed), Spanish studies in the philosophy of science, Berlin, Springer, 1996Abstract
The purpose of this essay is to analyze the role played by methodological questions in the development of science and, on the basis of this analysis, to see if that role corresponds to the part assigned to methodology in the models of scientific change. The hypothesis underlying this investigation is that methodology plays a major role in scientific revolutions and that its significance depends on the degree of "maturity"1 of the discipline concerned when the revolution takes place. If this hypothesis is "appropriate"2, we must conclude that the revolutions which have occurred so far in the social sciences were fundamentally revolutions in methodology. On comparing several models of scientific change (MSCH) (bearing in mind the differences among them), it does not seem that methodology occupies a prominent position. Therefore, if the MSCH is to reflect what actually happens, we must review several approaches and offer alternatives that are more compatible with the history of science.