After Positivism: Critical Realism and Historical Sociology
Critical Realism, History, and Philosophy in the Social Sciences
ISBN: 978-1-78756-604-0, eISBN: 978-1-78756-603-3
ISSN: 0198-8719
Publication date: 27 July 2018
Abstract
Since its resurrection during the 1980s, comparative-historical sociology has been repeatedly critiqued on two fronts. Quantitative methodologists have argued that its “causal inferences” are unreliable due to its “small n.” And methodological individualists have argued its explanatory accounts are unacceptable because they do not specify “microfoundations.” But these critiques are built on faulty foundations, namely, a regularity theory of causation and a reductionist social ontology. In this article, I propose an alternative foundation derived from Critical Realism: a production theory of causation and an emergentist account of social structure.
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Citation
Gorski, P.S. (2018), "After Positivism: Critical Realism and Historical Sociology", Critical Realism, History, and Philosophy in the Social Sciences (Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 34), Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 23-45. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0198-871920180000034002
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