The Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills

THE CONFUSION in the social sciences-it should now be obvious-is wrapped up with the long-continuing controversy about the nature of Science. Most students of society will surely agree that their grateful acceptance of ‘Science' is usually as ambiguous as it is formal. ‘Scientific empiricism' means many things, and there is no one accepted version, much less any systematic use of any one version. Professional expectations are quite confused and the sense of craftsmanship may be realized in terms of quite different models of inquiry. In some part, it is because of this situation that the epistemological models of philosophers of natural science have such appeal as they do.1

Recognizing the existence of several styles of work in the social sciences, many students eagerly agree that ‘we ought to get them together. ' Sometimes this program is put rather persuasively: the task during the next decades, it is said, is to unite the larger problems and theoretical work of the nineteenth century, especially that of the Germans, with the research techniques predominant in the twentieth century, especially that of the Americans. Within this great dialectic, it is felt, signal and continuous advances in masterful conception and rigorous procedure will be made.