THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL TRENDS IN SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY

Abstract

There are different approaches to the study of social phenomena in the social sciences. Some of them are less successfuland some of them are more. Taking into account that every science has its own subject of research it is quite certain that also in the study of social phenomena should be applied a certain method. In aspiration for knowing of the phenomenon of social reality these attempts have often ended on the level of the concepts, or they, in the unclear hope that society can be studied like nature, resorted to the methods of the natural sciences, or the highly successful methods were conceived that even today no way to lose their importance.

Regardless of the specific deficiencies and errors, all of the theoretical and methodological trends have made lasting contribution to the scientific knowledge of social reality, and among them of particular importance are: positivism, historicism, structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism and the dialectic method.