Khrystoforova O. Heuristic Potential of Research Programms in Sociology

In the thesis the heuristic potential of positivist, interpretative, critical and postmodern research programms in sociology was examined. The examination was conducted on basis of the analysis of scientific inference within research programms and systematization of the classes of research aims, which can be fulfilled in the practice of empirical sociological research. Approaches to evolution of scientific and sociological knowledge were systematized and features of contemporary cognitive situation in sociology were defined. The principles of methodological validation of scientific inference in empirical sociological research were considered. These principles provide the quality of empirical basis of the theoretical generalization.