6. Sociology and Science

Question 1

Who can be used to illustrate a positivist view of science?

Answer 1

Durkheim

Question 2

How can sociologists remain objective according to Durkheim?

Answer 2

By using appropriate research methods that allow their subjective involvement to be avoided

Question 3

How does Durkheim link correlations to science?

Answer 3

Argues that correlations can be made when statistics have been collected about the social world
Correlations may represent cause-and-effect
Careful analysis of the effects of different factors is needed to check that correlations reflect causal relationships

Question 4

What does the careful analysis of correlations allow you to discover according to Durkheim?

Answer 4

Careful analysis allows you to discover laws of human behaviour

Question 5

Why does Durkheim believe that approaches such as the Social Action Theory aren’t scientific?

Answer 5

He believes that to be scientific, you should only study what can be observed

Question 6

What type of approach does Durkheim believe in? What does this mean?

Answer 6

An inductive approach - theories are made based on evidence instead of the other way round

Question 7

From Durkheim’s POV, how can a sociological approach be scientific?

Answer 7

Any sociological approach that uses objective statistical methods is scientific

Question 8

Other than positivists and Durkheim, who else believes that sociology can be a science?

Answer 8

Comte

Question 9

What is and isn’t science there to tell us according to Comte?

Answer 9

Science isn’t there to tell us why things come into being / why things happen.
Science is there to explain how things relate to each other, using laws

Question 10

What is the main task of sociology according to Comte?

Answer 10

To discover general laws of social development: laws of co-existence (relationship between parts of society) and laws of succession (laws that govern social change)

Question 11

Which two people believe that sociology could be a science?

Answer 11

Popper
Kuhn

Question 12

What approach does Popper reject?

Answer 12

He rejects the inductive approach, suggesting that whatever you are studying will be informed by some sort of initial theory

Question 13

What approach does Popper favour?

Answer 13

A deductive approach - if the theory is sufficiently specific and detailed, you can use it to make predictions about what the data will show you

Question 14

Why does Popper believe that it’s impossible to claim that you have discovered a law of human behaviour?

Answer 14

He believes that it’s always possible that some evidence will not fit the theory and prove it untrue

Question 15

What does Popper suggest about scientific knowledge?

Answer 15

It can never be taken to be the final truth, since it may be disproved in the future. However, the logic of science still gives us the best knowledge that we can possibly have

Question 16

Why does Popper believe that most social science is not actually scientific?

Answer 16

He believes that most social science involves theories that are not sufficiently precise enough to be falsified E.g. Marxism predicts that a proletarian revolution and the overthrow of capitalism will occur, without saying when it will happen. This makes it impossible to say that Marxism has been falsified due to its lack of detail. Therefore, Popper would argue that Marxism isn’t scientific

Question 17

What is the only way for sociology to be scientific according to Popper?

Answer 17

It requires precision, rigorous testing and a willingness to admit when you are wrong

Question 18

What does Popper argue about the natural sciences (physics, chemistry and biology)?

Answer 18

He questions them as even they may be falsified in the future

Question 19

Who talked about paradigm shifts to argue that sociology could be a science?

Answer 19

Kuhn

Question 20

What does Kuhn say about every scientific truth that has ever existed?

Answer 20

He argues that is has always been disproved

Question 21

Why does Kuhn believe that science itself isn’t objective?

Answer 21

Although we believe in scientific truths now, they may be disproved one day

Question 22

What does Kuhn refer to sociology as? Why?

Answer 22

A young science because it has no dominant perspective and it full of competing theories regarding society. It will only become a science when it has found its unifying theory

Question 23

3 groups of sociologists that believe that sociology isn’t a science

Answer 23

Interpretivists
Phenomenologists
Postmodernists

Question 24

What is a key mistake that those who believe sociology is a science make according to interpretivists?

Answer 24

Sociology is not comparable to the natural world and to attempt to transfer the methods and ideas of the natural sciences to the natural world is a mistake

Question 25

What is the world according to interpretivists and phenomenologists?

Answer 25

The world is socially constructed

Question 26

How does the natural world differ from the social world?

Answer 26

The natural world is quite predictable however, the social world is not. Different individuals placed in identical circumstances will often react differently because they have different biographies

Question 27

What is the main reason why sociology isn’t a science?

Answer 27

Humans are very unpredictable

Question 28

Why is there no way of directly observing the external world and recording facts about it according to phenomenologists and postmodernists?

Answer 28

Because there are no facts about the social world. This makes it impossible to test theories either to verify or falsify them