Abstract

Social science can achieve falsifiable theory, but only if dependencies of regularities upon milieu and context are explicitly considered. Achieving falsifiable, general theory depends upon finding a set of relationships which is in fact relatively independent of context, and specifying the boundary conditions or domain of applicability to models. Contemporary sociologists such as Herbert Blalock and George Hornans believe theory is possible without recourse to history, but Raymond Aron and especially Max Weber suggest how and why history and theory are interdependent. Weber's image of the historical as inexhaustible concrete adds the insight that whenever theorists find a determined, lawful causal sequence, they will have to understand the situation at the start of the sequence as a set of rich, historical givens. Metatheoretical philosophy of explanation in social science best addresses the problem of infinite residue and bridges the gap between disciplines