Anti Zetterberg. Een critische beschouwing over enige vooronderstellingen achter de gangbare versie van middle-range-theory

Samenvatting

A number of presuppositions used by H. L. Zetterberg, when stating the usefulness of the concepts of middle-range or miniature theory, are discussed. Comment is focused on 3 topics: (1) the relation of these theories to theory formation in the physical sciences; (2) the construction of a more inclusive theory from basic concepts, to derived concepts, to postulates, to theorums, and to subtheories; and (3) the ideal of an all-inclusive, ever-valid theory, detached from a concrete cultural setting. It is held that such starting points lead, in theory and practice, to a sociology with a high level of abstraction which leads to a factor reduction in its hyp's, and which results in an extremely poor explanatory level. This is not, it is maintained, the poverty of a young science; rather, it is the selective principle of the retreat to a limited set of hyp's, which can be fully tested, that leads sociology into the corner of sociopsychological 'micro-sociology,' without offering the possibilities of getting out of the corner. In order to offer a possible alternative, a tentative approach towards a new middle range starting point is outlined. Modified HA.