Exploring a Non-Empirical Way of Sociological Theory Development

Merton advocates an way of sociological theory development which take theories of the middle-range as an intermediary to link sociological empirical research and general theoretical research. This proposal is reasonable. But Merton’s attempt to achieve this goal by prioritizing the development of theories of the middle-range based on empirical research and then forming a general theory by generalizing theories of the middle-range may be wrong. Just as a theory of the middle-range is not derived from empirical facts, a general theory is also difficult formed from generalize of theories of the middle-range. We need to explore a non-empirical way for the development of sociological theory.