Some Theses on »Theoretical« and »Empirical« Sociology

In the first part of this paper, the author gives a classification of theoretical and empirical publications relying largely on H. Zetterberg. Thus, in the area of those which are called theoretical works, the author distinguishes »sociological criticism« which analyzes sociological works from an historical perspective, »taxonomic works« which are primarily oriented towards defining basic concepts and their identification in reality, and finally »propositional works« which seek to determine the relationships among so-defined phenomenon. The relevance for empirical research (which is not identical with relevance for development of the entire discipline) increases as we move from critical to propositional works. A similar classification can be made for research publications in which the first category would be descriptive works which determine the existence of and describe some X, then simple confirmation of some relationship between two variables and finally a third type which tests some more complex system of relationships. A basic proposition which the author cites in order to be able to talk about the stability of any discipline is the need for existence of a balance among all these types of works. In his opinion, one aspect of the »crisis« in our contemporary sociology is that such a balance does not exist so that theoretical works and empirical research exist one despite the other. A supplement to this basic proposition, however, is that a balance in the types of publications is a pre-condition to advancement only in those situations which Kuhn calls periods of »normal« science. Breakthroughs analogous to changing the paradigmatic framework occur in situations when one type prevails over others. In the second part of the article, the author discusses certain prejudices which appear among sociologists with regard to use of mathematical language. A basic thesis is that mathematics is not a »salutary solution« in the sense that it is the only possible manner of expression in sociology but that its non-use where necessary leads to results which are below the optimal