Book, Scientific Methodology in Social Sciences 3/95[LS]

The author places research as the very reason for academic activity. Without detracting from teaching and also extension activity, it emphasizes that these two intrinsically depend on research. In this regard, he is incisive: "The only person who, through research, has built his own scientific personality, has something to teach, is someone who has an original contribution; otherwise, he will go no further than telling students what he has read. And if we attribute to the university a commitment to the community in which it is located, so that it does not just remain in theory, but can go down to practice, this is achieved in the best possible way if the intervention is actually based on prior research, because it is not can influence what is unknown." Structured around this initial statement, the first part of this text deals with the social debt of science. In this part, the author deals with more general issues, where the perspective of the sociology of knowledge stands out in scientific demarcation, in the validity of the authority argument, in the search for the relativization of science, in the idea of ​​anti-methodology as a counterbalance to the exaggerated and moralistic concern of the methodologist and in the discussion around neutrality. In the second part of the text, the author highlights some important approaches to current research in Social Sciences, such as empiricism, positivism, dialectics, functionalism, systemicism and structuralism.