Commitments and the Construction of Theories

The main area of interest of the research project is the question: Is it possible to realize a "preferential option for the poor?" (resp. a humanistic option resp. an option for humanitarian concerns) in the construction of theories in the Humanities and the Social Sciences. Is it possible to realize such an option without betraying the idea of scientific research and without producing ideologies? The Project assesses the relation of (theoretical and ethical) commitments and the construction of theories in the Humanities and the Social Sciences. Which commitments are part of the construction of theories? What is the relation between theories and their context, between the construction of theories and the selection of topics and concerns, concepts and categories? What is the relation between construction of theories and the use of examples and intuitions? In this sense, the project attempts to provide an general epistemological account of the theory- connstruction in the Humanities and the Social Sciences. Hereby, the project analyzes the scientific disciplines in question not on an abstract level, but on the basis of in-depth studies of theology, philosophy, and history (as examples of the Humanities) and of sociology, Cultural Anthropology, and economics (as examples of the Social Sciences). By way of analyzing key works of these disciplines the project tries to uncover the strategies in the architecture of theories in these disciplines, thus using clear examples and a clear basis of reference. The project is organzed in two parts: the first part ("The Construction of Theories") deals with epistemological issues of theories in general, and the theory-construction of the six selected disciplines in particular. The six disciplines are analyzed both on the basis of general epistemological concerns and on the basis of in-depth studies of five key works of this field. The second part ("The Possibility of an Option") develops the concept of a "preferential option for the poor" and a discussion of ideologies and the possibility of a non-ideological use of this option and assesses the possible consequences of such an option for the six selected disciplines. Again, the assessment is not only done on a general epistemological level, but uses a specific example (problem) for each discipline to show the consequences of explicit commitments, such as the problem of writing a history of South Africa, the problem of a sociology of deviance, the problem of gender anthropology or the problem of the economic theories of "life quality". Furthermore, five field studies of academic institutions (like the UCA in El Salvador or the University of Notre Dame in the US) which pursue an option will be carried out.