The Search for Paradigms as a Hindrance to Understanding

Abstract

In a recent issue of this journal, Oran Young argued forcefully against the ‘collection of empirical materials as an end in itself and without sufficient theoretical analysis to determine appropriate criteria of selection.” The present paper issues a complementary critique of the opposite failing. Its target is the tendency toward compulsive and mindless theorizing—a disease at least as prevalent and debilitating, so it seems to me, as the one described by Oran Young.

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