Method dispute (social sciences)
The dispute over the type of methods to be used in the social sciences is called a method dispute . It reflects the establishment of sociology as a scientific discipline and its development into an independently operating science.
Method monism versus method dualism
The method controversy flared up with the establishment of sociology, especially in Germany, between representatives of a scientific method ideal ( method monism ) and the opponents of adopting these methods in the social sciences ( method dualism ), who claimed their own scientific logic for them. The postulate of the freedom of values in the sciences, which became the subject of the so-called value judgment dispute, also played a special role in these disputes .
Max Weber formulated the basic position of his own social science methodology with the introduction of the concept of understanding into sociology. He defines sociology as "a science that interprets social action and thus wants to explain its course and its effects causally." According to Weber, social action, which is to be grasped in an understanding way, is characterized by the fact that those who act are subjective with it Connect meaning . The explanatory understanding of the social sciences goes beyond the actual understanding of the intended meaning of an action insofar as it grasps the context in which the action belongs. Understanding is therefore the reconstruction of the intended meaning or the context of meaning and that is methodically guided by the construction of an ideal type .
According to Weber, such an understanding can also be viewed as explaining (i.e. tracing back to a cause), but is based on an understanding of meaning and takes into account the peculiarity of the social-scientific object, namely to be meaningful. In this respect it differs from a causal explanation of the natural sciences.
The advocates of a scientific method ideal, on the other hand, tried to ensure the scientific nature of the newly emerging discipline by applying the same methodological procedures that had been developed in the natural sciences. They postulated the validity of scientific methods such as the scientific explanation of causation, quantification and mathematical treatment of the data, verification, falsification, etc. for all disciplines that claim to be scientific.
Explain against understanding
In the presentation of the methodological dispute , the two positions were often shortened using the terms explain versus understanding , while the dichotomy between natural science (explaining) and spiritual science (understanding) actually reappears in social science as a double meaning, as an objectively reconstructed and subjectively intended meaning, the according to Weber, can be grasped with the method of interpretative understanding. The dichotomy between science and the humanities also plays a major role in the debate on C. P. Snow's thesis of the two cultures .
The method controversy came to a head in the 1960s in the so-called positivism controversy , when Karl Popper and Theodor W. Adorno gave their presentations on the logic of the social sciences at a workshop of the German Society for Sociology (DGS) . The representatives of dialectical theory, on the other hand, accused the rationalism of the logic of science of shortening the problems of social science in a positivistic and reductionistic way. The dialectical theory doubts that science can proceed as indifferently with regard to the world produced by man as it does with success in the exact natural sciences. Rather, social science must develop methods and concepts that are appropriate to the peculiarity of its subject, and the social totality, contrary to its dissolution in limited, empirical analysis , must receive phenomena accessible to research.
Qualitative versus quantitative methods
Although the arguments were far more complex and multi-layered, the discussion in the following period was reduced to the comparison of quantitative and qualitative processes in social research, while in the development of sociological theory macro-sociological approaches such as critical theory and systems theory were formulated with different perspectives take in.
In the area of social research, quantitative methods based on scientific methodology initially largely gained acceptance. Qualitative approaches, which established themselves in the tradition of historical-hermeneutic procedures, were only a marginal phenomenon. Max Weber's program of establishing explanatory understanding without value judgment as a social science methodology has often been abandoned in favor of purely descriptive procedures. At the same time, however, procedural approaches such as objective hermeneutics or qualitative content analysis developed , which tried to methodically grasp the tension between subjectively intended meaning and objective reconstruction of contexts of meaning.
Since the 1980s, there has been a shift towards qualitative procedures in social research, which partly arose from dissatisfaction with the results of the survey research. On the other hand, representatives of quantitative social research had recognized the value of qualitative methods for the preparation of quantitative surveys, in the formation of hypotheses and the interpretation of the survey results and gradually integrated them into their own procedures. The increasing recognition and relevance of qualitative procedures finally led to the official establishment of a section for qualitative methods in the German Society for Sociology in 2003 . The section is now working on integrating qualitative methods into the courses offered, degree programs and study regulations.
See also
literature
- Theodor W. Adorno: Sociology and empirical research
- Matthias von Saldern : Qualitative vs. quantitative research - Nekrolog on a contrast . Empirical Pedagogy, 6, 1992, pp. 377-400.
- Matthias von Saldern: On the relationship between qualitative and quantitative methods . In: E. König, P. Zedler (Hrsg.): Balance of Qualitative Research , Volume 1: Basics of Qualitative Research. DSV, Weinheim 1995
- Matthias von Saldern: On the relationship between qualitative and quantitative methods from the perspective of the research process . In: E. König, P. Zedler (Hrsg.): Balance of Qualitative Research , Volume 1: Basics of Qualitative Research. 2nd Edition. DSV, Weinheim 1998