The paradigm of systemic hedonism and the research program of social processes as a methodological framework for studying social phenomena

The paper discusses the issues of the establishment of methodology for studying social sciences. Based on the analysis of the contemporary scientific knowledge in the philosophy of science, the authors prove that the holistic methodological approaches exist both in the natural sciences and in the humanities at the moment. The evolutionary synergetic paradigm has been firmly established in the natural sciences since the end of the 20th century on the basis of the T. Kuhn’s concept, and the research program of evolutionism was developed in 2012 on the basis of the I. Lakatos’ approach. As for the humanities, similar methodological frameworks can be distinguished in this field. They include the research program for the comprehensive study of humans and the paradigm of viable and developing systems. The mutually complementary paradigm of systemic hedonism and the research program of social processes can become the methodological framework for studying social phenomena in the social sciences.