ABSTRACT
This chapter explains a flexible pluralistic approach and relates is to theories of methodological pluralism in the social sciences. In general, methodological pluralism attempts to reconcile different methodological approaches to the social sciences. Brian Fay and J. Donald Moon's Synthesis Account has two important strengths. First of all, this version of methodological pluralism recognizes that interpretation and causal understanding, far from being incompatible, might work in tandem. In addition, it acknowledges both the importance of critical social science and the relevance of naturalistic and antinaturalistic methodologies to critical social science. Methodological pluralism, according to Paul A. Roth, is the denial of methodological exclusivism. The only argument Roth adduces in support of his thesis that methodological pluralism maximizes social scientific knowledge is a vague analogical one. However, Roth goes astray in trying to produce a general rationale in terms of the growth of science.
