Each field of research must develop its own method rather than borrow natural-science method

Evidence

But it is the concept itself of “science”, as it merges from the Popular Manual , which requires to be critically destroyed. It is taken root and branch from the natural sciences, as if these were the only sciences or science par excellence , as decreed by positivism. But in the Popular Manual the term science is used in several meanings, some explicit, some only by implication or barely mentioned. The explicit sense is the one that “science” has in physical research. At other times however it seems to indicate the method. But does there exist a method in general, and if it does exist surely then it can only mean philosophy? At other times it could mean nothing more than formal logic: but can one call that a method and a science? It has to be established that every research has its own specific method and constructs its own specific science, and that the method has developed and been elaborated together with the development and elaboration of this specific research and science and forms with them a single whole. To think that one can advance the progress of a work of scientific research by applying to it a standard method, chosen because it has given good results in another field of research to which it was naturally suited, is a strange delusion which has little to do with science. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1560

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gramsci’s concept of science: no universal method in general, only methods co-developed with each specific research domain.
• XREF: This is foundational anti-positivism against importing natural-science method into social/human sciences; connects to later critical-theory readings that reject treating society as a natural object. — connects to: Each science constructs its own method; there is no universal method; Scientific method cannot be transferred wholesale across research fields — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1561; Traditional ecological knowledge rests on the same empirical method as modern science — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice:…, 691 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Each science constructs its own method; there is no universal method #corroborates (0.95)
• Scientific method cannot be transferred wholesale across research fields #corroborates (0.92) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1561
• Borrowing scientific methods has never made economics genuinely scientific #exemplifies (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 481
• Traditional ecological knowledge rests on the same empirical method as modern science #qualifies (0.75) — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 691