ОБЈАШЊЕЊЕ И РАЗУМЕВАЊЕ У ДРУШТВЕНИМ НАУКАМА: НОМОТЕТИЧКИ И ИДЕОГРАФСКИ ПРИСТУП
EXPLANATION AND COMPREHENSION IN SCIENCE: NOMOTHETIC AND IDIOGRAPHIC APPROACH

Summary/Abstract: Weber’s thought and his works that are essential for theory of science. Nomothetic v. idiographic scientific method. Weber’s understanding of science as organized thought and vivid impression of reality. Two channels of scientific activity: nomothetic and idiographic. The ideas of Auguste Comte and the surge of new positivism: methodological positivism and transfer of the hard science methods into the social sciences. A critique of positivism in science. The ever-lasting predicament of humanities and social sciences: is it possible to step in another man’s shoes and understand another behavior? Inferences on the sense and connotation of acts of another, and the epistemological traps of such inferences. Judgments on the sense and connotation of another behavior lack in precision, it is not an exact statement of facts, but an assertion based on personal inner experience. Manipulation and reconsideration in science. Knowledge and the ways of using it. Explanation and comprehension. The notion of explanation builds up one’s need to live comfortably, the notion of comprehension extends one’s need to live properly. Comprehension does not induce thinking on what we are, but on what we want to be. Civilizational and cultural contents of explanation and comprehension.

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