五十年来,“默顿命题”不断唤起史学家们的激情,其原因却让人难以理解。从来没有一个著名的史学理论在构架上如此谨慎,在方法论上如此折衷,在其形式、内容和结论等方面如此地受到条件的限制,而且在表述上又是如此地适度。罗伯特·默顿和他的辩护者们习惯于说他的命题受到了“误 For fifty years, “Merton’s proposition” constantly evoke the passion of historians for reasons that make it hard to understand. No famous historical theory has ever been so cautiously framed, methodologically so eclectic, so limited in terms of its form, content and conclusions, and so modest in its formulation. Robert Merton and his advocates were accustomed to saying that his proposition was “mistaken.”