ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter, I examined Blumer’s criticisms of quantitative method and of the positivist ideas that were often used to justify it. Despite his differences with the positivists, Blumer shared their goal of creating an empirical science of social life. But, of course, his conception of that science differed sharply from theirs-in large part because of his commitment to realism, symbolic interactionism, and critical commonsensism. However, as we shall see, his views about the nature of and possibilities for social science are equivocal.
