E. P. Thompson and Social Sciences research

Abstract

E. P. Thompson did try to drive a relevant dialog among the social sciences by incorporating  sociological categories in his historical research and by criticizing functionalist trends in both disciplines. His method for analyzing the making of the working class conveys a simultaneous criticism of the methodological laws and rules of conservative and functionalist social historians and sociologists, and orthodox Marxists as well. The currentness and importance of Thomspon’s work are due to the fact that his thinking is a defense of reason and of the ontological foundations of the real, a strong counterpoint to actual anti-realism and epistemological skepticism, and the relativist vision that denies the possibility of objective knowledge. The references for Thompson’s proposals are those of the discipline of history and guide a reflection on sociological research and contemporary social-political questions. Thus, the objects of the sociological study can only become understandable if apprehended in their historical movement and, in this sense, they shall not lose their specific character. These are the grounds of the approach of this article and they invite Thompson as a privileged
interlocutor.