Debate 1 - Is sociology a science? Flashcards
YES sociology is a science - positivists
Founding fathers like Durkheim and Marx believed that individual behaviour is shaped by external social forces and structures. They suggest you can use scientific and empirical methods (which are scientific) eg Durkheim used scientific and quantitative objective methods to study suicide
YES sociology is a science - induction
Early attempts to describe the ways in which scientists operate heavily upon the concept of induction which is where you establish a theory from gathering evidence. The scientist generates a hypothesis. Durkheim work on suicide is scientific as it uses induction - official stats
YES sociology is a science - as an open system rather than closed
Sayer distinguishes between open and closed systems. Science is considered a closed system where it is possible to control all variables eg physics/chemistry. Open systems are where it is not possible to control all variables eg meteorology. If sociology is a science it would be like an open system where predictions can still be made but they are not always accurate
NO sociology is not a science - interpretivists
Blume and others argue that society is created by the interactions between its individual members which implies there cannot be overreaching social laws that govern society. They suggest non scientific qualitative methods should be used which are not empirical, lack objectivity and are open to personal bias
NO sociology is not a science - deduction and falsification
Deduction is where you come up with a theory first and then use evidence to prove or disprove a theory. Popper argued it is impossible to prove any hypothesis as totally correct. Instead we must try to falsify a hypothesis - what a science should do. Popper said most sociological theories like marxism and feminism cannot be falsified so sociology is not a science
NO sociology is not a science - in the pre paradigm stage
Kuhn argued that science is not free from bias or totally objective. He disagrees with induction and deduction and says instead there are different stages
- pre paradigm - no agreement on best methods to use
- paradigm - theory is established
- normal science - work within paradigms
sociology is not a science because it is in the pre paradigm stage as there is no agreement amongst sociologists about society
