Methodology for the Human Sciences: Systems of Inquiry

Donald Polkinghorne

SUNY Press, Jan 1, 1983 - Science - 349 pages

Methodology for the Human Sciences addresses the growing need for a comprehensive textbook that surveys the emerging body of literature on human science research and clearly describes procedures and methods for carrying out new research strategies. It provides an overview of developing methods, describes their commonalities and variations, and contains practical information on how to implement strategies in the field. In it, Donald Polkinghorne calls for a renewal of debate over which methods are appropriate for the study of human beings, proposing that the results of the extensive changes in the philosophy of science since 1960 call for a reexamination of the original issues of this debate.

The book traces the history of the deliberations from Mill and Dilthey to Hempel and logical positivism, examines recently developed systems of inquiry and their importance for the human sciences, and relates these systems to the practical problems of doing research on topics related to human experience. It discusses historical realism, systems and structures, phenomenology and hermeneutics, action theory, and the implications recent systems have for a revised human science methodology.

Contents

• The Original Debate: 15
• Positivism: 16
• The AntiPositivist Response: 20
• The Recurring Debate: 51
• Summary: 56
• The Received View of Science: 59
• The Vienna Circle: 60
• Theoretical Networks: 71
• The Human Sciences and the Deductive System of Inquiry: 87
• Pragmatic Science: 93
• Criticism of the Received View: 94
• Sciences as Expressions of Various World Outlooks: 103
• Historical Realism: 116
• Systems and Structures: 135
• Structuralism and Human Systems: 152
• Systems Inquiry and Methodology: 166
• Human Action: 169
• The Nature of Human Action: 170
• Causal Explanations: 173
• Acausal Explanations: 183
• Linguistic Accounts: 192
• Practical Reasoning: 195
• ExistentialPhenomenological and Hermeneutic Systems: 201
• The ExistentialPhenomenological System of Inquiry: 203
• Hermeneutics Interpretation: 215
• Interpretation and the Human Sciences: 237
• Human Science Research: 241
• The Nature of Knowledge: 242
• Use of Linguistic Data: 258
• Concluding Remarks: 279
• The Term Human Science: 283
• Notes: 291
• Bibliography: 325
• Index: 343

About the author

Donald E. Polkinghorne is Emeritus Professor and Chair of Counseling Psychology at the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Narrative Knowing and the Human Sciences and Practice and the Human Sciences: The Case for a Judgment-Based Practice of Care, both also published by SUNY Press.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Methodology for the Human Sciences: Systems of Inquiry; SUNY series in transpersonal and humanistic psychology
• Author: Donald Polkinghorne
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: SUNY Press, 1983
• ISBN: 087395663X, 9780873956635
• Length: 349 pages
• Subjects: Science / Research & Methodology