robert-brydie replied to your post: Today I learned that feminist epistemology does…
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As the person who first mentioned it - my commitment towards methodological pluralism comes mainly via influence from Bourdieu and critical realists - others come close to similar understandings but do not use the term “methodological pluralism”. I wonder if part of your hostility to such an idea may be from a different understandings of what the scientific method is? The reason I have hostility to “the” (emphasis on this part) scientific method is that this is normally outlined as experimentation, prediction and theory-neutral observation. What I am arguing against isn’t being scientific but that a proper understanding of the object of study requires the adaptation of scientific methodS. Doing so does not limit the aim to objectify what is being research - indeed Bourdieu from the recognition of the impossibility of theory-neutral observation insists upon the objectification of the objectifying position in order to understand the influences and limits to this, that a naive view of objectivity risks ignoring, with the direction towards improving the ability to objectify.
Edit: and since you seem to be of the opinion that others are in need of studying more and pay attention I’d recommend Andrew Sayer - Method in Social Science and Bourdieu et. al. - The Craft of Sociology ;-)
Excellent! I am always looking to be a better, more informed Sociologist. I am eager to read the texts you cited.
That being said, I am not sure I agree with your concept of the scientific method. In my experience, this method involves hypothesizing, experimentation, and forming conclusions. With further empirical support, a relationship can make its way to the position of theory, where it is then used as a framework for other research. While I agree each methodological approach must be informed by the object of study (in our case, society), the foundation of objective inquiry, I believe, should begin with the process I outlined above, and thus the scientific method.
This is the process by which objective knowledge had been educed historically, and it is this positivist framework that has propelled Sociology into the position it is in today: as an academic science.
