ABSTRACT
The mode of social theorising which characterises this paradigm has a long history. Indeed. its pedigree can be traced back to the very roots of sociology as a discipline, and the early attempts of social philosophers to apply the ideas and methods of natural science to the realm of social affairs. It is a paradigm which, in many respects, has developed as a branch of the natural sciences and, to this day, in disciplines as avowedly ·social' as sociology, psychology, economics, anthropology and the like, natural science models and methods reign supreme in various areas of enquiry.
