A New Paradigm for the Method of the Social Sciences

DOI

10.2991/ceed-18.2018.100How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Traditional Methodologies; Social-Historic Process; Organizational Necessity and Choice-Possibility; Civilizations; Ethics

Abstract

This essay begins by pointing out the pointlessness of the great theories on method, that is the abstract rationality and the observation-experimentation ones, to describe and understand social reality. Then we consider the multiplicity of alternative hypotheses and methodologies that have been directed to remedy the difficulties of the above two methods in treating social phenomena. Soon after, we set out an interpretation that bases the method of inquiry on social reality on a model privileging the organizational side. We pay attention to the classification and interaction of basic and particularly meaningful aspects of social reality, as well as on the methodological distinction between the organizational “necessity” of social systems (that is, required by reasons of organizational rationality and efficiency) and “choice-possibility” as centered on the civilization options and choices. This will allow the defining of an interpretative model based on the action of man as builder and organizer of social systems, an interpretation able to understand the main vicissitudes of those systems. We shall consider the deceits that the Roman Church derived from her renunciation of the medieval organizational vision, under the suggestion of the successes gained by the observational-experimental method in the study of natural reality. We shall also consider the effects of the misunderstandings above, mainly in the field of ethics. Finally, we shall dedicate some attention to the theory of social and historical processes.

Copyright

© 2018, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Fusari Angelo
PY  - 2018/12
DA  - 2018/12
TI  - A New Paradigm for the Method of the Social Sciences
BT  - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Contemporary Education and Economic Development (CEED 2018)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 514
EP  - 522
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/ceed-18.2018.100
DO  - 10.2991/ceed-18.2018.100
ID  - Angelo2018/12
ER  -