Research Methodology in the Human Sciences

Based on the foundationalist approach in epistemology, knowledge is a layered matter with a core and a shell, the underlying layer of which is formed by "foundations" and "principles", and every theory is a superstructure and a shell, the core and substructure of which are "foundations" and "principles". One of the most important steps in understanding, criticizing, or producing a theory is to correctly understand the foundations and principles governing that theory, and the differences in theories ultimately come back to the differences in foundations and principles. In this path, the first logical step is to identify the meaning of the words "basis" and "principle", which this article seeks to do. By comparing different definitions of "foundation" and "principle", the author has shown that these two words are synonymous with "verification principles" in the logician's terminology and in most cases, this is the meaning intended by the definers, and most of the examples mentioned in various sciences for "foundation" and "principle" are among the verification principles. Therefore, "verification principles" include two categories of propositions: 1. General descriptive propositions that contain the "beings" and the origin of the propositions and research results of a science and govern them, the goal of science is determined based on them, the general direction and approach and research method in science are influenced by them and are the criteria for the correctness and validity of the epistemic products of that science. (Fundamentals) 2. General propositions that are grammatical and contain a type of research “musts” that are based on and derived from the fundamentals and are directed towards the goals of science, determine the general direction, approach and research method of science, and are a means of operationalizing and applying the fundamentals and their objective and practical realization in the desired areas. (Principles) The research method is “descriptive-analytical” and the article is organized with a “philosophical and epistemological” approach.