ARNOLD BRECHT'S POLITICAL THEORY REVISITED Political ...

158 THE POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEWER
ly on a rapidly growing stock of pertinent statistics. No greater revolution has
ever taken place in the routine work of scholars in the social sciences.''
The trend toward "methodological awareness" was, thus, a trend
"away from `dogma'-from religious dogma as well as from dogmas
of national tradition or of a personal conviction-and on to `reality"'
(5). And, as we have seen, on its negative side it came to entail the
stricture against "value judgments."
Brecht presents his own version of "Scientific Method" in terms of
eleven "`scientific actions,"scientific operations,' or `steps of scientific
procedure'," which he cautions, do not necessariy occur in the
order presented.
1. Observation of what can be observed, and tentative acceptance
or nonacceptance of the observation as sufficiently exact.
2. Description of what has been observed, and tentative acceptance
or nonacceptance of the description as correct and adequate.
3. Measurement of what can be measured; this being merely a
particular type of observation and description, but one sufficiently
distinct and important to merit separate listing.
4. Acceptance or nonacceptance (tentative) as facts or reality
of the results of observation, description, and measurement.
5. Inductive generalization (tentative) of accepted individual
facts (No. 4), offered as a "factual hypothesis."
6. Explanation (tentative) of accepted individual facts (No. 4),
or of inductively reached factual generalizations (No. 5), in
terms of relations, especially causal relations, offered as a
"theoretical hypothesis."
7. Logical deductive reasoning from inductively reached factual
generalizations (No. 5) or hypothetical explanations (No.
6), so as to make explicit what is implied in them regarding
other possible observations (No. 1), or regarding previously accepted
facts (No. 4), factual generalizations (No. 5), and
hypothetical explanations (No. 6).
8. Testing by further observations (Nos. 1-4) the tentative acceptance
of observations, reports, and measurements as properly
made (Nos. 1-3), and of their results as facts (No. 4), or
tentative expectations as warranted (No. 7).
17. (5). If the stress is placed on the term "routine," in the narrow sense, the assessment
offered in the final sentence may be beyond reproach. But if that term is interpreted
more broadly, Brecht's assessment must surely be regarded as short-sighted by
those who understand the magnitude of the revolution wrought by such men as Bacon,
Hobbes, and Descartes.