Methodology of Social Sciences - František Ochrana

The methodology of science is of a crucial importance for the building of science as a whole as well as for the forming of the different scientific branches. That is, it seeks (among other things) to find out what is the nature of the “scientific image of the world,” what is the substance of the “scientific law,” what methods and procedures could and should be used within scientific research. In the field of social sciences, these issues are also associated with the question of the nature of clarifying statements that social sciences provide. Are the statements of social sciences similar to the explanations from natural sciences, or is it rather a revelation of the meaning and understanding of social phenomena based on a clarification of the system of rules? Is social cognition by its nature a causal explanation and is it rather an interpretation? All these are questions of the methodological nature that show the way towards the answer with respect to the character of the resulting scientific statement based on the examined issues, and based on what the given scientific statement provides evidence. This publication attempts to look for the answers to these questions and to establish possible grounds for their solutions.