Wittgenstein, Hayek, and Gadamer An Introduction to a Synthetic Methodology in Social Science

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the principles of a synthesis on social science methodology. Such synthesis is based on a reading of methodological approaches of three intellectuals in this area, who are Ludwig Wittgenstein, Friedrich August Hayek, and Hans-Georg Gadamer. In the first part, I explain the necessity of synthesizing social science methodology. Then, upon reviewing the relevant literature, I discuss the principles of two main social science methodological approaches. The third part explains the possibility of synthesis. Such a possibility is discussed through reviewing six main similarities amongthree intellectual’s approaches within the format of finding equivalence for each thinker’s keywords which have been discussed in other thinkers’ language game. Although there are different concepts for each similarity on special intellectual approach, I explain why these different concepts can be translated into each other. These similarities are: the existence of a rulefollowing social context in the backdrop of individual actions, the originality of practical and unconscious activity versus theoretical and conscious activity, metaphoric use of the (language) game in the sense that aspects of the agency is retained within the context of the structure, initiating from a subjective base while reaching an objectivity which lies beyond the individuals, limitation of cognition and rejection of the observer’s stance, and finally, striving to render a criterion in order to avoid relativism. These similarities, at the same time, form the fundamental principles of thesuggested synthetic methodology. In the final section of the paper, these similarities are revisited explicitly and also formulated in response to the three main questions of nature of subject matter of the social science, how it is to be studied (the methodological requirements), and the goal of a social science study. It is on such basis that the subject matter of social sciences has beendeclared, by the synthesis approach, to be the language-historical order, of which the language aspect is based on Wittgenstein’s approach, the historical aspect based on Gadamerapproach, and the order concept is gained from Hayektheories. The final part also expounds the goal of a social science study in that it is the dissection of these orders, in Wittgenstein-Gadamerian sense of the word. Within the environs of such a goal also lie limited provision of predictions based on the dissection of these orders. Thus, based on subject matter and the goal, the methodological requirements of a social science study are put to discussion.