Montesquieu's theory and practice of the comparative method

Bibliographic Data

ID12221100
AuthorsMelvin Richter (390A West End Avenue, PH B, New York, NY 10024, USA, corresponding author)
Year2002
Volume15
Issue2
Pages21-33
Publication date2002-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory of the Human Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0952-6951 • E-ISSN: 1461-720X
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0952695102015002124
OpenAlexW2016476906
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited5

Montesquieu's comparative method was his greatest contribution to the human sciences. Eighteenth-century European thinkers had developed many different models and conflicting evaluations of regimes and societies outside their continent. Thus Montesquieu had to create a method for comparative analysis, master data from the vast travel literature, and decide among competing interpretations of it. Montesquieu used comparison to show differences and to demonstrate similarities among the laws and practices of different peoples, as well as in a given people at different periods; to specify the range of variations among those similarly classified; and, above all, to explain both uniformities and diversities. He devised five distinct modes of comparison, each phrased in a different set of categories. From them were to be generated many of the disciplines and special fields in the human sciences. 1

Comparative method · Comparative research · Epistemology · Linguistics · Range (aeronautics · Set (abstract data type · Social science · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Computer Science · European Political History Analysis · Philosophy · Political Theory and Influence

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