Martti Kuokkanen

The growth of sociological theories

A critical appraisal of Wagner and Bergers framework for analyzing the growth of sociological theories calls for more precise criteria for identifying theoretical continuity. We propose a structuralist theory of science as an alternative framework. Our rational reconstruction of selected theories in the family of social psychological balance theories shows that Wagner and Bergers key concepts have counterparts in the exact formalism of structuralism. Overall, our results support Wagner and Bergers main thesis: the growth of theoretical knowledge in sociology is not rare but simply hidden by mistaken assumptions about the nature of theoretical activity.

Conceptual correlation: An example of two social psychological theories

In the present paper Cohens and Lees theory of social conformity and Festingers theory of cognitive dissonance are first reconstructed according to a revised form of the so-called “structuralist theory-conception” developed by Sneed and Stegmüller with their collaborators. Then the two theories are conceptually correlated in the sense of a technical notion of conceptual correlation which can be shown to be an essential generalization of the theory-relations handled by the structuralists.It will turn out that there is no unique way to connect these theories with each other. However, it is shown that two ontologically and conceptually different theories can be correlated. This in turn gives in principle an opportunity to compare critically these two theories given that the constructed conceptual correlation is sufficiently sound and that the theories are empirically testable to a sufficient extent.

The Poznań school methodology of idealization and concretization from the point of view of a revised structuralist theory conception

My thesis is that some methodological ideas of the Poznań school, i.e., the principles of idealization and concretization (factualization), and the correspondence principle can be represented rather successfully using the relations of theoretization and specialization of revised structuralism.Let (i=1,...m, j=1,...k) denote the conceptual apparatus of a theory T, and a class M={} (i=1,...m, j=1,...k) the models of T. The n-components refer to the values of dependent variables and t-components to the values of independent variables of the theory. The n- and t-components in turn represent appropriate concepts. Consider T* as a conceptual enrichment of T with concepts (i}. If the classes M and M* are suitably related, then the situation illustrates both the case of the theoretization-relation of (revised) structuralism and of the factualization-principle of the Poznań school.Assume now that the concepts n(i′), t(j′) of T for some i′, j′ are operationalized using some special assumptions generating appropriate empirical values n and t for these concepts. Let M′ denote the class {} which is formed by substituting n and t for values of concepts n(i′), t(j′) in the elements of M. If the classes M and M′ are related in a suitable way then the situation is an example of both the specialization-relation of (revised) structuralism and the concretization-principle of the Poznań school. The correspondence principle in turn can be represented as a limiting case of the theoretization-relation of (revised) structuralism.

On the structuralist constraints in social scientific theorizing

Several case studies and theoretical reports indicate that the structuralist concept of a constraint has a central role in the reconstruction of physical theories. It is surprising that there is only little theoretical discussion on the relevance of constraints for the reconstruction of social scientific theories in the literature. Almost all structuralist reconstructions of social theorizing are vacuously constrained. Consequently, constraints are methodologically irrelevant.In this paper I reconstruct three cases selected from social scientific theorizing. The first case is a generalization of Gross, Mason and McEacherns (1958) role expectation conflict theory, which is a qualitative theory. The second case is Cohen and Lees (1975) quantitative theory of social conformity, which essentially utilizes the theor of Markov chains. The third case is the explanation schema of folk psychology which is one of the most important methodological frameworks in the social sciences.In all the three cases important constraints emerge. From an epistemological point of view it seems that the related constraints work as higher-order laws. In any case, purely conceptual arguments are insufficient to justify them.The three cases,mutatis mutandis, cover nearly all types of social scientific theorizing, so that in my view constraints play a crucial methodological role in the social sciences precisely as they have in the natural sciences.

A generalization of the role expectation conflict theory with a methodological analysis

Gross’, Masons and McEacherns role conflict theory with two incompatible role expectations is generalized by letting the number of incompatible role expectations increase. It is proved that the generalized theory is consistent and that its four axioms are independent. Three methodological results are proven. They show that the generalized theory is, in principle, testable from the point of view of three different well‐defined testing situations. Finally, it is shown that the original theory is a special case of the generalization.

Structuralist constraints and mathematical social theorizing

Several case studies and theoretical reports indicate that the structuralist concept of a constraint has a central role in the reconstruction of physical theories. It is surprising that there is, in the literature, only little theoretical discussion on the relevance of constraints for the reconstruction of social scientific theories. Almost all structuralist reconstructions of social theorizing are vacuously constrained. Consequently, constraints are methodologically irrelevant.In this paper I try to show that there really exist constraint-type assumptions in mathematical modelling in the social sciences. Methodologically constraints have exactly the same role in the context of social mathematical modelling as they have in physical theories. In typical cases of mathematical modelling in the social sciences, the related constraints work as empirical hypotheses and should be tested by statistical means.

On the Structuralist Constraints in the Explanation Schema of Folk Psychology

Historically, the structuralist theory-conception grew from the well-known “West Coast Approach”. The starting points of this approach were the axiomatizations of Classical Particle Mechanics by J. McKinsey, A. Sugar and P. Suppes in 1953, and of Rigid Body Mechanics by E. Adams in 1955 Ch. 12 and Suppes 1967, Suppes 1969).

Idealization in ethics outlining a formal moral metatheory

In this paper we shall show that structuralist constraints applied to moral idealizations, have applications in critical ethical argumentation. Moreover, we developed some systematic concepts which may be used to evaluate the relevance and adequacy of descriptions of moral problems relative to given idealizing moral perspectives. Finally, it is shown that any two moral perspectives are comparable via the Kemeny-Snell measure of distance of rankings.

Structuralism as a Method of Theory Construction

Resting on the ideas of Gross, Mason and McEachern (1958) a generalized theory on role expectation conflicts is formulated and it is proved that their original theory is a special case of this generalization. It is shown that role conflict theory is adequately presentable as a theory-net precisely in the sense of structuralism. The generalized theory is formulated using specialization- and theoretization-relations as methodological means.