Abstract
The pervasiveness of mathematical formulations of empirical behavioral theory notwithstanding, consideration by behavioral scientists of the methodological foundations of nomological-deductive and axiomatic theory in the context of actual prototypes has been notably absent (cf. McPhee). Even when characterized as ‘deductive’ or ‘axiomatic’, theory in these sciences has rarely been more than partially and implicitly formal; and even when cast in formal language, such formalization has not been rigorously carried out. Furthermore, such theoretical formulations have rarely been coextensive in generality with the interactional boundaries of the behavioral systems to which they are meant to apply, heuristically adducing instead, as descriptive-explanatory generalizations about human behavior, postulates of limited scope. Such postulates, neither general nor elementary, consequently provide little basis for nomological theory capable of systematizing either the transmission or the discovery of knowledge in the behavioral sciences generally or in the domains of application of the specialized theories.
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© 1976 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
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Uliassi, E.C., Chacon, R.J. (1976). The Methodology of Behavioral Theory Construction: Nomological-Deductive and Axiomatic Aspects of Formalized Theory. In: Przełęcki, M., Szaniawski, K., Wójcicki, R., Malinowski, G. (eds) Formal Methods in the Methodology of Empirical Sciences. Synthese Library, vol 103. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1135-8_33
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1135-8_33
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