The subject matter of the methodology of sciences

pp. 11-29

in: Jerzy Topolski, Methodology of history, Berlin, Springer, 1976

Abstract

The subject matter of the general methodology of sciences, which discipline is often also called the logic, philosophy, or the theory, of science, has no strict demarcation lines. It would also be useless, as it seems, to look for such a definition of the subject matter of the methodology of sciences upon which all persons involved would agree. It is presumably more to the point to indicate the range of problems with which the general methodology of sciences is concerned, and also those with which, in the opinion of the scientists, it should be concerned. In this way we can arrive at an undisputed set of the problems which are specific to methodological research. Only in the light of this analysis will it be possible to suggest such an interpretation of the methodology of sciences which could be used in the study of methodological problems of history.