Honing Occam's razor

a general system theory perspective on social science methodology

John W. Sutherland

pp. 255-284

in: Werner Leinfellner, Eckehart Köhler (eds), Developments in the methodology of social science, Berlin, Springer, 1974

Abstract

The social sciences, particularly, suffer from a methodological polarization. On the one hand there are the grand theory builders whose constructs are often idiographic and seldom amenable to empirical validation. On the other are formulators and testers of limited hypotheses for whom the concept of an articulated conceptual framework for their discipline is largely gratuitous. The middle range is ill-served and, as a consequence, there are troublesome discontinuities in the social science model base. Adopting a general system theory perspective, as an epistemological platform, permits us to bridge these discontinuities. Specifically, it parses the social science problem domain into four phxenomenological ideal-type categories, associating with each a specific sub-set of the arsenal of scientific instruments available to us. These instrumental sub-sets are shown to be derivatives of four major analytical modalities operative in the social sciences: Positivism; inductivism; deductivism and heuristicity. When these modalities have been defined, their contribution to a fully-integrated, continuous model base is made both imperative and apparent.