14世紀學者伊本．赫勒敦（Ibn Khaldun, 1332-1406）試圖利用科學探究方法研究及理解人類社會。孔德（Comte）於19世紀將社會學奠定為一門學術研究科學，而早在四個世紀前，赫勒敦已提出了人類社會的社會學剖析。然而，大多數西方社會學的書籍顯然對伊本．赫勒敦對社會學方法的影響和貢獻未加著墨。本研究試圖就其構成歸納法精髓的科學假設系統性地解讀伊本．赫勒敦的「Muqaddimah」（緒論）。伊本．赫勒敦的「Muqaddimah」本質上是一部社會學著作，是一篇序言或是他另一部更長的歷史作品《世界通史》（The Kitab al-Ibar）的第一冊。本研究著重在伊本．赫勒敦假說的形成以及其對他的心理和社會理論的影響，尤其特別關注他採用正確假說的原則。本研究的結論論證了伊本．赫勒敦證明科學假說方法的兩個主要方法：比較法及整合法。

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) a fourteen centuries scholar attempted to study and understand human society by using scientific methods of enquiry. He provided a sociological anatomy of human society four centuries before sociology was originally born as an academic science by Comte in the 19th century. However, Ibn Khaldun’s impact and contributions to the methods of sociology are apparently missing from most Western sociological books. This paper attempts a systematic reading of Ibn Khaldūn’s Muqaddimah (the introduction) in the context of his scientific hypotheses that form the essence of the inductive method. Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah which is essentially a sociological work, is a preface or the first book of his larger historical work, “the Kitab al-Ibar.” The research focuses on Ibn Khaldūn’s formulation of hypotheses and their impact on his mental and social theories. Special attention is given to his principles of adopting the correct hypotheses. The paper concludes by demonstrating Ibn Khaldūn’s methodology of proving scientific hypotheses focusing on his two major methods: the comparative method and the method of conformity.