Methodological Standards for Comparing Sociological Theories

Previous attempts to find standards for the systematic comparison of sociological theories are frequently deemed to have failed. Contrary to this assessment, this article defends the claim that methodological progress in the treatment of theoretical complexity has been made in the debates about theory comparison. Different methodological approaches for theory comparison can be integrated into a common framework. This methodological framework is itself developed by comparison: a hermeneutic method of theory comparison is used to systematize and integrate methodological ideas according to their role in enabling empirical competition between sociological theories. The article argues that criteria for the assessment of the empirical fruitfulness of theories should be differentiated according to the problems they try to solve. Candidates for interparadigmatically generalizable classes of problems are obtained by review the distinction between levels of theory: theory of society, social theory, and middle range theories.