The
first two fit the law-oriented notion of theory; the third fits the idealizing
notion of theory (Mjøset, 2001). Researchers in this tradition work in
similar ways as researchers in the natural sciences. This does not mean
that they want to reduce social science to natural science, only a not very
influential minority pursues such a programme.
Alternatively, the understanding of a case is regarded as a holistic
impression of the total situation studied: theory in that case may be understood
as transcendental, basic notions of structure and action. Theory
looks like a set of transcendental categories, explored in lengthy books