Sociological Method and Epistemology

The founding methodological and epistemological positions on how sociology itself should study society, Auguste Comte positivism, which holds that social phenomena can be studied with the methods of natural science, against Max Weber Verstehen, an interpretive method seeking the subjective meaning an actor gives an action, and Weber own concept of the ideal type, a deliberately simplified model used as a measuring stick for comparing real cases. Belongs here: a position on sociological method or knowledge itself rather than a substantive theory of social structure or interaction. Does not belong here: a substantive theory built using one of these methods, which is classified by its own content elsewhere in this tree.