Both sociology and its methodologies developed in the wake of national societies. The nineteenth century constructed these latter as the only legitimate global societies, and sociology constructed them as the model for society. The author considers the opposition between qualitative and quantitative methods in this light, all the while widening the debate to encompass anti-empirical social philosophers. He also examines the opposition between global society and shared local society through the lenses of postmodern thought and the equivalence sometimes made between researchers' level of analysis and political orientation. The author concludes by proposing a number of methodological orientations.