Sociology as a science

• 5 Components of Science

  1. Empiricism
  2. Testable
  3. Theoretical
  4. Cumulative
  5. Objective
• Positivism:

  Sociology can and should be a science
• Interpretivism:

  Sociology cant and shouldnt be a science
• Positivism:

  Sociology is patterned and organised and these factors can be observed.

  Social Facts: Explanations of social patterns

  Inductive reasoning: Gathering research to form a theory

  Verification: further research will prove a theory correct

  Methodology: Objective, Value free and Quantitative methods
• Interpretivism:

  Subject Matter: Natural sciences study matter which have no consciousness

  Meanings and The Unobservable: Sociology looks at internal meanings and motivations not external

  Correlations not causality: Not possible to establish causality

  Ethics: Cant study humans as you do objects

  Methodology: Verstehen, Qualitative Methods, High Validity
• Durkheim: Study of Suicide

  Found patterns in the suicide rates around Europe meaning suicide was caused by social facts not individual motivation
• Falsification:

  Sociology could be a science
• Popper:

  Falsification: Good science is about proving a hypothesis wrong

  Fallacy of Induction/ Deductive Reasoning: Come up with a theory/idea and attempt to prove it wrong

  Swan Analogy: Belief that all swans are white can be disproven by seeing one black swan
• Paradigms:

  Sociology could be a science
• Kuhn:

  Paradigms: A body of knowledge that dominates how research is conducted and the core beliefs

  Scientific Revolution: when new evidence becomes so large it overthrows previous paradigms

  Sociology: Has too many competing theories and contradictions within theories for a single paradigm (idea) to exist however this doesnt mean it wont happen
• Realism:

  Sociology could be a science, if the definitions of science are corrected
• Keat and Urry: Realism

  Open and closed systems.

  Closed Systems: All variables can be controlled and measured (lab experiments)

  Open Systems: All variables cannot be controlled and measured (field experiments)
• Bhaskar: Realism

  Not everything in the natural sciences are observable, similar to sociology
• Postmodernism:

  There is no such things as objective science
• Postmodernism:

  Metanarratives: Science tries to prove an absolute truth

  Science has failed to improve society: e.g. Global Warming

  Fragmentation: It is pointless to try find the wider causes of behaviour due to the collapse of social structures (e.g. class)

  Objectivity and Value Freedom: Pretensions that are unjustifiable as all truths are equally valid