Methodology of social sciences: Positivism, anti-positivism, and the phenomenological mediation

Abstract

Two dominant modes of social scientific enquiry by bringing out the philosophical underpinnings of positivism and its antithesis as exemplified by the interpretative school are discussed. Traversing the, philosophical trajectory, it provides an account of the methodological.discourse encompassing (a) the 'unity of method' cast in the positivist mould, (b) the methodological dualism advocated by the verstehen school, and (c) the new thesis of unity of method implied in the hermeneutic mode. It is claimed that phenomenology is capable of effecting mediation between the two rival modes of social scientific enquiry by integrating the different goals of social sciences such as explanation and understanding, by synthesising the empirical and the interpretative dimensions of the social world.