Relocating the Epistemological Position of New Historical Sociology (original) (raw)
2005, Middle East Critique
Relocating the Epistemological Position of New Historical Sociology Abstract: this paper deals with new developments in the methodology and theoretical concerns over the question of the nature of reality. The term “new historical sociology” in this article refers to a developing discipline that theoretically as well as methodologically is different from both sociology and history. For this reason the position of this discipline needs to be relocated epistemologically to enable scholars of both sociology and history to deal with problems they might encounter while doing historical sociological research. As far as the arguments for this relocation are concerned, this epistemological relocation needs to be done before scholars engage in research. At the outset, it is necessary to consider particular problems, and these include dealing with the question of evidence vis-à-vis historical fact, the notion of reality (objectivity versus subjectivity), the notion of science and multiple rationalities, the shortcomings of universal explanation, the notion of scientific contribution, the notion of scientific intersubjectivity, etc. I have tried to offer the arguments relevant to these problems in one simple package starting with the question of knowledge and its relation to socio-historical data. Keywords: new historical sociology, intersubjectivity, subjectivity, objectivity, evidence.
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