ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that in accepting the so-called ‘objective’, value-neutral approach of the natural scientist, the person who seeks to study social, and specifically human, phenomena has made the task an impossible one. No knowledge of society would be possible without some such picture within which further data may be organised, but, as already indicated, this framework will depend upon the perspective of the individual social scientist. Within the confines of an allegedly value-neutral social science, one cannot call upon a person’s sympathies or ask someone to alter their basic perspective so as to perceive social/economic interaction in a new light. Social scientists who limit the scope of their investigations by demanding value- neutrality are making comprehension of social reality impossible because their methodological assumptions are based on an alienating, impersonal view of their distinctively human object of study. The alienation of the social scientist as an individual has a number of related aspects.
