The Logic of Theoretical Research

Abstract

The precise definition of the relationship between theoretical and empirical research has been a troubled one in sociology. This problem already concerned the classics of sociology, although general theory was closely entwined with more empirically oriented research in their work. This has greatly changed since sociological theory became a specialized field of investigation (Mouzelis, 1993). Some writers, such as Parsons (1937) or, more limitedly, Turner (1987) have supported a deductivist view of sociological theory. Others have, conversely, embraced inductivism. Durkheim (1895: 124ss; 1912: 593–4) and Znaniecki (1934) — dwelling on the principle of determinism or uniformity, according to which nature is homogeneous and therefore the basic structures of similar phenomena are necessarily the same (see Bhaskar, 1975a: chap. II-2) — recommended the induction of general theoretical propositions from single case studies. Others such as Blumer (1954: especially 147ff) — resolutely supporting inductivism — and Giddens (1984: 326) — regardless of his straightforward, and not methodologically grounded, general theoretical construction — eschew the uniformity of the social world and propose that sociological concepts have merely a sensitising character. For them, human reflexive powers entail an unremittingly shifting reality and the impossibility of concepts of truly universal validity.