ABSTRACT
In a nominal sense, methodology designates reasoning (logos) “with” methods (i.e., by means of methods) or, alternatively, reasoning “about” methods. The term’s nominal and etymological ambivalence is reflected in a double usage in everyday academic parlance. In the narrow sense (“with”), methodology relates to the more or less systematic inventory of procedures and techniques of investigation in a given academic field: this is the more descriptive and technical side of the term. In its broader sense (“about”), methodology also refers to the study of principles by which research procedures and techniques of investigation are chosen, elaborated, applied, and assessed. In its broader sense, methodology primarily is rooted not in any specific discipline, but rather in epistemology as a philosophical field, and in the interdisciplinary realm of studies in science and technology.
