Nature versus nurture: a sociologist's view of the significance of the recently revived debate

Quantitative methods in the social sciences have much to commend them. If used sensitively they ensure that the observations of any one scientist or observer may be replicated by another. The great danger, however, is that, if they are used insensitively, the social scientist may seek to quantify for the sake of quantification, and, if the issue under discussion is not capable of easy quantification, it is likely to be put on one side and replaced by another. Too often, quantitative social scientists give us exact but irrelevant answers to the questions we are asking.