Grand theory
As a major theory scientific theories are designated all-encompassing explanation claim. Examples are the (hypothetical) Theory of Everything in physics , Parsons' systems theory in sociology, or realism in political science.
The term goes back to Charles Wright Mills who, in his 1959 book " The Sociological Imagination " (German: Critique of Sociological Thinking , Neuwied: 1963) ironically used the term "grand theory" for theories that are so generalizing, that they can no longer say anything meaningful about empirical facts. Mills commented:
"The basic cause of grand theory is the initial choice of a level of thinking so general that its practitioners cannot logically get down to observation."
Mills saw the opposite pole to the major theory in what he called "abstracted empirism" (German: spiritless empiricism) called investigation of very special and individual facts, from which no generalizations could be derived. He postulated that sociological theories (conceptions) had to take into account both abstraction (idea) and data (empirical content). Mills saw grand theory and mindless empiricism as two extreme poles:
"If the idea is too large for the content, you are tending toward the trap of grand theory; if the content swallows the idea, you are tending toward the pitfall of abstracted empirism. "
To resolve this duality, Robert K. Merton developed his concept of the medium-range theory in 1962 .
Both the terms of the large-scale theory and the theories of medium-range have now entered the vocabulary, especially of the social sciences, without a quantifiable distinction between the terms being formed. In general, major theories are those theories or theoretical structures that postulate a temporally and spatially generally valid explanans (e.g. “the nature of man”) for all facts in a discipline that require explanation. Medium-range theories, on the other hand, are not universal, but rather limited in time or space.
literature
- CW Mills: The Sociological Imagination , Oxford: 2000
- Quentin Skinner : The Return of Grand Theory in the Human Sciences , Cambridge: 1994