FOR

• Which sociologists think sociology is a science?

  • Comte
  • Durkheim
• What does Comte suggest?

  That science is there to explain how things relate to each other, using laws. It is possible to discover the laws that control and shape the behaviour of people in society. Therefore, the main task of sociology is to discover general laws of social development
• How can these laws of social development by discovered?

  • Laws of co-existence
  • Laws of succession
• What is meant by Laws of co-existence?

  Looking at the relationship between parts of society
• What is meant by laws of succession?

  Laws that govern social change
• Why does Durkheim criticise Comte?

  He argues that Comte failed to study sociology as a science
• Why does Durkheim see sociology as a science?

  Because we can study social facts as things to observe and measure e.g. suicide rates
• What is meant by inductive logic and positivism?

  Inductive logic is a feature of positivism that makes a general conclusion form a set of specific facts. It uses objects that have been examined and experiments that have been conducted to establish a conclusion about an object that has not been examined
• What do Positivists argue?

  That sociology cannot be scientific be a science by modelling itself on the natural science, using quantitative methods and induction or verification to establish observal patterns in behaviour casual laws