融合历史与比较：对比较社会科学新进展的响应

Reconciling History with Comparison: Responding to Recent Challenges to Comparative Social Science

本文通过对比较社会科学研究新进展的考察，指出了传统的比较社会科学方法论所面临的问题和挑战。继而作者受到自然科学、生命科学，以及社会科学研究成果的启示，提出了功能——构型方法，希冀对比较社会科学研究开辟新的视界。

This paper mainly probes the methodology of comparative social science. It has three sections. First of all， some recent developments in comparative social enquiry are introduced， in which the problems and challenges， at the level both of epistemology and of ontology， have given rise to the desideratum of such a “reconciliation”. In the next step， based on the two crucial ideas of functional equivalence and relational thinking， the paper outlines some theoretical alternatives and the problem solutions these proffer. Drawing on these alternatives， finally， a functional-cum-configurational approach thought to provide a new vista for comparative research will be developed.