Methodological reviewing of Kazuo Seiyama's methodological position of sociology

Abstract

In his Methodological Position of Sociology, Kazuo Seiyama criticized methodologies of canonical sociologists, such as Max Weber and Niklas Luhmann, but we think his arguments are re-descriptions of their method and theory rather than critics. As shown by recent researches, Weber's methodology mainly came from the statistical and analytic philosophical thought of Johannes von Kries, not from German idealism and historicism. Weber used "ideal type" and "nomological knowledge" as counterfacuals of causal analysis in empirical studies. His "Wert-Interpretation" is functional equivalent for Bayesian priori distribution, and his famous argument of "Wertfreiheit" implies the inevitable theory-ladenness of observations in social sciences, because they are internal observations of modern societies.