Value Freedom

• value freedom we can be value free

  Comte and Durkheim - early positivists

  Comte believed sociology as the 'Queen of the sciences' being able to discover the truth of how society worked and believed sociology is an objective, scientific way to tell the world how society worked
• value freedom values guide us

  Weber

  for Weber, values are essential in guiding our research - marxists always look to the role of capitalism and feminists look at the patriarchy
• value freedom values guide us

  Weber

  we may let our values affect our choice of research but he believes when it comes to the collection of data this should not occur - we need to be objective
• value freedom responsibility

  Weber

  argues scientists and sociologists therefore must not abdicate responsibility for the moral and political consequences of their work

  e.g Einsteins work on quantum physics led to the development of the atomic bomb
• value freedom underdog

  Becker

  argues the objective stance of positivists takes no responsibility for the consequences of their research - he believes sociologists should state who's side they are on e.g the underdog

  argues this will give sociology a bias
• value freedom

  Gouldner

  all research is inevitably influenced by values
• value freedom middle ground

  Realists

  argue the ideas of both positivists and interpretivists are wrong - believe that values are present when a sociologists pick their topic - functionalists looking at how crime works for the good of society - but values should be left out during data collection to give the research credibility

  However values again become part of the research when interpreting the data as the researcher is going to see what they believe is there
• value freedom value free

  Comte

  one reason for this opinion of value free sociology - during the 19th century, sociology as a new subject was trying to establish its reputation and by emulating science, positivists like Comte may have been trying ti make sociology respectable in the eyes of academics
• value freedom interpretivists

  argue that argue the aim of sociology is to discover meanings attached by social agents - in Weber's words to gain ' verstehen '

  this they argue can't be done by taking an objective approach as each individuals life experience is different and their values are different