methodology

methodology The word is sometimes used to refer to the methods and general approach to empirical research of a particular discipline, or even a particular large study, although the term ‘research techniques’ is perhaps more apt in this context. The principal concern of methodology is wider philosophy of science issues in social science, and the study of how, in practice, sociologists and others go about their work, how they conduct investigations and assess evidence, how they decide what is true and false. The topics addressed include whether the social sciences are in fact sciences; whether the social scientist needs to understand a sequence of social actions to explain it fully; whether there are laws in the social sciences which can predict as well as explain; whether research can be, or should be, value-free; causation and causal powers; inductive and deductive theory; verification and falsification; and other problems in the philosophy of knowledge and science (most of which are treated under separate headings in this dictionary). See also NEO-KANTIANISM; NEO-POSTIVISM.