Metatheory and Social

Inquiry
Positivism, Phenomenology, and
Critical theory

Topics for this Chapter

Positivism
Phenomenology/Interpretavism
Critical tradition

Introduction
Social sciences are analogous or
comparable to the natural sciences
Only make progress if they pursue the
same goals as the natural sciences

Inconceivable for the social sciences

to imitate the natural sciences
Differences in nature between SS and NS

The positivist paradigm

Assumptions of this tradition:
1. Scientific maturity
Progress made by the NS vs SS

2. Sufficient degree of similarity in research

domains
3. Social and natural phenomenon are
sufficiently similar
Analogy between society and biological
organisms

The positivist paradigm (cont.)

Comte:
Branches of all knowledge pass through
successive stages:
1. Theological (fictitious)
2. Metaphysical (abstract)
3. Scientific (positive) social progress
Believed in the unification of sciences, as
well as a hierarchy of the sciences:
Sociology Biology Physics/Mathematics

The positivist paradigm (cont.)

Durkheim:
Empirical application and
implementation of positivism in actual
social research
Emphasis is on social facts explain
social phenomenon i.t.o. the scientific
laws which underlie them (causality)

The positivist paradigm (cont.)

Logical positivism and the Vienna
Circle:
Aim was to unite all scientists in an
attempt to establish a scientific society
The ideal of a unified science
Carnap believed that laws discovered in
each of the sciences could eventually be
reduced to one another and all laws
reduced ultimately to those of physics

The phenomenological/
interpretivist tradition
Emphasis is on the human
consciousness and the differences
between NS and SS
Human science is defined as:
Understanding (not explaining) people
Human beings are engaged in the
process of making sense of their worlds
continuously interpret, create, and
give meaning to, define, justify, and
rationalise

The phenomenological/
interpretivist tradition (cont.)
Shutz:
Real anything that stands in relation to
people
World of everyday life based upon
peoples basic experiences
Physical nature vs social reality
Postulates of logical consistency and
adequacy

The phenomenological/
interpretivist tradition (cont.)
Garfinkel:
Ethnomethodology methods by
which people make sense of the
situations in which they find themselves
and how they manage to sustain an
orderliness in their interactions with
other people

Hermeneutics

The phenomenological/
interpretivist tradition (cont.)
Social interactionism
1. People act towards things on the basis of
the meanings they have for them
2. Meaning arises out of social interaction
3. Meaning is handled in, and modified
through, and interpretative process

The critical tradition

Social science must become an
emancipatory and transformative force
Habermas:
Distinguishes three cognitive interests:
1. Technical controlling nature
2. Practical communication
3. Emancipatory critical & rational thinking
(knowledge is generated which enhances
autonomy and responsibility)

The critical tradition (cont.)

Fay:
Critical social science begins to perform
an educative, and ultimately,
transformative role
Humans as beings who transform
(change) themselves and their
environment through production (work)
Accepts both positivism and
phenomenology, but

The critical tradition (cont.)

Critical feminism:
Concerned with the under-representation
of women and womens experiences
within the social sciences both as
subjects of research and producers of
theory
Masculine biases in social research
methodology
Relations of ruling
Lived experiences and move on to analyse
the relations that determine them