Sociological Methods and Sociological Meta-theory

The unique subject of sociology is the relationship between the individual and society. Being both the meta-fact and the empirical fact, it constitutes the foundation of the dual nature of sociological knowledge-combination of theory and methods. Thus, meta-theory and meta-presupposition are unavoidably involved in sociological methods. Due to the meta-theoretical significance of the relationship between the individual and society, understanding and presuppositions of this issue run through the whole sociological information. In the article, the writers show the purport of this standpoint to sociological research: it is the starting point of several aspects of sociological knowledge-the starting point of combination of theory and methods, the starting point of various split traditions, Methodenstreit and dividing lines of forms of sociological knowledge, as well as the starting point of the effort to integrate the knowledge. Certainly, it is supposed to be the starting point of sociological reconstruction. Therefore, the serial studies about the issue at the sociological meta-theoretical level and its innate links with sociological theoretical route and method will help clarify the authentic problems arising during the realization of sociological reconstruction.