ABSTRACT
How do we decide whether to accept or reject particular ideas or theories about society? There are some simple and well-known answers to this question which are based on what is assumed to be the best practice of natural science. I will discuss the most popular of these, Popper’s ‘falsificationism’, in the next chapter. Although such accounts tend to encourage optimism about the possibility of clear, decisive tests, it is difficult to think of any examples of them in social science. Indeed, there are many social scientists who are deeply pessimistic about the possibility of arriving at any consensus on the adequacy of social theories; theoretical disputes are seen as endless and progress as rare or uncertain. I shall argue that the orthodox views on verification and falsification are misconceived and particularly inappropriate for social science. As a result the two poles of unfounded optimism and exaggerated pessimism are mutually reinforcing. For the more social scientists orient their work to the prescribed modes of verification or falsification, the more remote the possibility of progress based on adequate assessment of theory: but then the less progress in testing is evident, the more strongly the inappropriate standards are advocated.
