The strange career of Millian methods in comparative social science.

For half a century, comparative social science has been closely associated with John Stuart Mill's methods of comparison. However, few social scientists had heard of Mill's methods in 1970. Within a decade, the methods of agreement and difference had become part of the methodological canon—despite M...

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Publicado en:Social Forces Vol. 103; no. 3; pp. 821 - 839
Autor principal: Kurzman, Charles
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Oxford University Press / USA Mar2025
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: The strange career of Millian methods in comparative social science.
      aug:
        au: Kurzman, Charles
        affil: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
      su:
        Mill, John Stuart, 1806-1873
        Social scientists
        Comparative method
        Astronomical observations
        Comparative government
        Chemistry experiments
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          Social scientists
          Comparative method
          Astronomical observations
          Comparative government
          Chemistry experiments
          Mill, John Stuart, 1806-1873
      keyword:
        comparative methods
        comparative politics
        comparative social science
        comparative-historical sociology
        John Stuart Mill
        comparative methods
        comparative politics
        comparative social science
        comparative-historical sociology
        John Stuart Mill
      ab: For half a century, comparative social science has been closely associated with John Stuart Mill's methods of comparison. However, few social scientists had heard of Mill's methods in 1970. Within a decade, the methods of agreement and difference had become part of the methodological canon—despite Mill's objections that these methods should under no circumstances be used in the social sciences. Comparativists continued to overlook the methods that Mill actually proposed for the social sciences, which relied on an analogy with astronomical observations rather than chemistry experiments. Yet Mill's own empirical research offered substantive findings without dwelling much on methods. Over the past half-century, successful works of comparative social science have pursued all three versions of Millian methods: the comparative methods that he widely associated with; the alternative methods that he proposed for social science; and the actual methods that he pursued, whose success lay in their creativity, not in methodological recipes.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
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      src: R
    language: English
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