Resumo

SALAS HARMS, Héctor. Some Reflections on the Presence of Regularities in the Social Phenomena, and the Possibility of Studying them According to a Methodological Monism. Contad. Adm [online]. 2008, n.224, pp.161-182. ISSN 0186-1042.

History of science outlines a temporary order in which the evolution of the disciplines and even that of their specialties has culminated in their scientific maturity, as well as an order in which their theories have attained precision in explaining and predicting their phenomena. This order can be seen to correspond to the complexity of the events which are studied by each field, and at present both maturity and precision are distinctive in the natural sciences only. The social disciplines remain today in a pre-paradigmatic, pre-scientific stage of development -research communities disagreeing even on the nature of social facts. Methodological dualism claims that the natural world exhibits uniformity and universal laws, but human events can at best be comprehended and interpreted on a case by case basis; while methodological monism attempts to discern and explain regularities through the testing of hypotheses with causal models, methodological thoroughness and findings that can be generalized and replicated. Accordingly, in line with the second point of view, facts and regularities in management and economics which can be established with certainty and validity for all are discussed in this paper. And it is also shown how the determinants of different social phenomena can be defined by analyses ex ante, including those whose variables are not susceptible of quantification.

Palavras-chave : philosophy of social science; methodological monism; regularities; objective facts; methodological dualism.