Dünyanın diğer ülkelerinde olduğu gibi, son zamanlarda ülkemizde de sos‐ yologların toplumsal gerçekliği yakalamak için farklı paradigmalara dayanan sembolik etkileşimcilik, etnometodoloji vb. farklı yöntemler kullandıkları görül‐ mektedir. İnsanın kendi doğal ve sosyal çevresini incelemek için çeşitli yöntem‐ ler geliştirdiği bilinmektedir. Bu yöntemlerin geliştirilme sürecinin bilim tarihin‐ de izlenmesi ilginç manzaralar ortaya çıkarmaktadır. Bu makalede doğa bilimle‐ rinin ve sosyal bilimlerin bilim ve yöntem anlayışları üzerinde durulacak ve farklı bilim paradigmalarından hareketle nicel ve nitel yaklaşımın temel sayıtlıları karşılaştırmalı olarak incelenecektir.
It has been known that people have developed several ways to analyse their own social and natural environments. Development process of these ways includes some interesting facts. Beginning by renaissance, dominant world‐view of the medieval ages in Europa which saw the world through a metaphysical understanding was challenged and a critical and scientific world‐view began to be initiated. The ultimate aim of science is to achieve a series of deductions after definitions and explanations. In fact, natural sciences and humanistic sciences do not vary in terms of aims and methods. However, experiments and observations employed in humanistic sciences are limitedly used in natural sciences. Therefore, in humanistic sciences, it is much more difficult to reach generalizations and laws. However, it is also true that humanistic sciences deal with observable and objective facts and is based on systematical knowledge that includes deductions resulting from causal relationships between these observable and objective facts. This article is concerned with methodological preferrences in sociology depending on the similarities and differences between the basic paradigms of natural science and those of humanistic sciences.