On the Scientific Method and Social Sciences

Abstract

Amongst long standing, and sometimes vexing debates around the scientific method, the explication and analysis of the concept of method received scant attention. In this paper, I have tried to suggest a clear account of the method. My proposed account is closely tied to the concepts of “descriptive ought/ought not” and “cognitive purposes.” In consequence, I have pinned down these two concepts. In the next section, I have indicated how logic is related to the scientific method. According to my suggestion, the logic differs from the scientific method in that the former fulfills a more general and comprehensive cognitive purpose than the latter. Logic is a precondition for gaining any sort of knowledge, that is, knowledge as such. On the contrary, the scientific method is required to obtain proper knowledge in a specific domain. Then, I have considered the sorts of relations there might be between ethics and the scientific method. In the last section, I have got into considering what my suggestions yield to when applied to social science.

Keywords

• the scientific method
• descriptive ought/ought not
• cognitive purposes
• logic
• ethics
• general cognitive rules
• specific cognitive rules