Understanding Merton A Reply to Fleck and Muller

This reply deals with Christian Fleck's and Albert Muller's critical discussion of my article "Die Rettung von Juden im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Eine handlungstheoretische und empirische Analyse" (KZfSS 64/2012). I begin by pointing out the significance of the initial decision to help, which is at the center of my contribution: This decision determined whether potential helpers would remain bystanders and therefore greatly affected the availability of help. My analysis therefore illuminates the conditions that promote helping behavior, even in high-cost situations. Using Robert K. Merton's methodological principles, referred to by Fleck and Muller themselves, I demonstrate why their criticism is partly inadequate and partly unconvincing. Guided by theoretical considerations, my original article explicates and specifies its explanandum in order to answer open research questions (Merton's "specified ignorance"). The analyzed secondary data have acknowledged limitations but nevertheless constitute "strategic research material" (Merton) for the analysis of altruism in high-cost situations. Disregarding the relevant state of research, theoretical background and research question, Fleck and Muller are unable to adequately discuss the data analyzed in my original article. My reply concludes with remarks on the relation between sociology and history.