Toward an Empirical Science of Literature

This article describes the general goals and results of a scientific approach which dissociates itself from scholarly studies of literature by organizing the field empirically. After remarks on the historical background of the so-called NIKOL conception of an empirical science of literature, I shall outline the three levels needed for the construction of an empirical science of literature: epistemology, metatheoretical presuppositions, and object-theories (i.e., theory consisting of four sub-theories). Value dimensions underlying these levels will be discussed together with practical application of the theory. Current and past projects as well as the future tasks of an empirical science of literature will be presented in the final section. Because the concepts and the structure of an empirical theory of literature are bound to the structure and function of scientific theories and to the notion of empirical knowledge, I shall first survey foundational issues in the hope that this mode of presentation will help the reader appreciate the scope of our approach.