Methodology of the Social Sciences Is Where the Social Scientists, Philosophers and the Persons on the Street Should Meet

Abstract

Lester Embree has observed in an essay that “methodology is where human ­scientists and philosophers can meet” (1980: 367). I agree with this observation, but it needs to be understood adequately. He obviously recognizes this necessity, since he refers primarily to Alfred Schutz’s methodology, making a passing reference to a methodology in a narrow sense which forgets the original intent and deals merely with statistics and/or computer technique (cf., ibid.: 371). He implies that if the term “methodology” is understood in the narrow sense, human scientists and ­philosophers cannot or need not meet in a methodology and that Schutz developed a methodology in a broad and adequate sense.