The Methodologies of Positivism and Marxism: A Sociological Debate

Questions concerning the way in which the study of social reality is to be approached are often regarded as "philosophical" issues which fall outside the domain of sociology. Sociology, it is argued, cannot concern itself with philosophical topics such as what is knowledge, what is involved in attempts to arrive at knowledge of social reality, what is the distinction between knowledge and ideology and what is the relation between sociology and society. It is the author's belief that such questions have to be confronted by sociologists going about the task of studying social reality. Instead of regarding these matters as being solely philosophical issues which fall outside the domain of sociology, This book regards them as methodological questions within the field of sociology. These questions cannot be put aside by sociologists engaging in attempts to investigate the functioning of social reality. Indeed, whether or not these questions are explicitly confronted by sociologists, their work is always informed by some kind of (albeit often unrecognized) "response" to them. This book is aimed at offering a clarification of the methodological principles which underlie various sociologists' search for knowledge of social reality. It is aimed at demonstrating how different ways of approaching the study of social reality are rooted in different methodological/philosophical traditions. Specifically, it concentrates on elucidating three types of methodological approaches - positivism, Marxist realism and Marxist non-realism. It tries to clarify at what points these positions differ from one another and in what sense they are incompatible.

Table of Contents:
Positivism as a theory of science - Comte, Popper, summary; positivism in sociology - the definition of sociological knowledge, the logic of sociological investigation, methods of observation, the practical utility of sociological knowledge, summary; Marxist realism as a theory of science - Keats argument, summary; Marxist realism in sociology - the definition of sociological knowledge, the logic of scientific investigation, methods of investigation, the practical utility of sociological knowledge; Marxist non-realism as a theory of science - Habermas' arguments, summary; Marxist non-realism in sociology - the definition of sociological knowledge, the logic of scientific discovery, a non-realist view of "methods" in sociology, the practical utility of sociological theorizing, summary; summary of the debate.