FUNDAMENTALISM - The Usefulness of a Contested Concept

FUNDAMENTALISM is a contested concept within the social sciences and humanities. Its intension and extension are debated, as is the question of its usefulness for research in these fields. Researchers need to assess whether this concept assists them in making substantive and informative claims about the social world, how to accumulate findings, and how to enhance coherence in fundamentalism research. This dissertation explores how we can assess the usefulness of the contested concept of FUNDAMENTALISM for social science and humanities research. I argue that there is no singular or straightforward method to determine whether and in what form the concept of FUNDAMENTALISM is useful for social science and humanities research. To further the ongoing debate, scholars should clarify their reasons for deeming certain conceptualizations of fundamentalism useful by bringing the concept’s intension, its extension, and normative ideas about the usefulness of concepts into reflective equilibrium. During this process, they should clarify the intended extension and articulate the concept’s intension as clearly as possible. Importantly, they should be transparent about what makes concepts useful in social science and humanities research. By analyzing current and past uses of the concept, along with its criticisms, I discuss four challenges that must be addressed to advance the ongoing debates about the concept’s usefulness: the historicity of the concept, the challenge of specificity, the difficulty in determining the usefulness of concepts, and the risk of biases. To make informed choices, it is crucial to understand the historical development of the concept, possess tools to disambiguate and compare various conceptualizations, be transparent about the values the concept should realize to be useful, and reflect on the risk of bias. In addressing these challenges, I gather guidelines and develop tools to engage with them. These lessons and tools can assist scholars in making informed, transparent decisions regarding their conceptualizations.