Debates: Is Sociology A Science Flashcards
1
Q
[🧪] what are the sources of knowledge
A
- WALLACE
1. Authoritarian: knowledge comes from a person who is wise and who provides information
2. Mystical: insight gained from religious experience or drug taking
3. Logics-rational: knowledge comes from ‘seeking the truth’ which comes from the rules of logic
4. Scientific: knowledge comes from putting forward ideas and hypotheses and testing them in rigorous ways
2
Q
[🧪] what did ‘enlightenment thinkers’ believe science could do?
A
- natural science produced true, objective knowledge of the world around us
- this would be useful for progress and human betterment. Eg: eradicating diseases and hunger
3
Q
[🧪] what is meant by science ?
A
- Set of principles that tell us how to produce valid knowledge
- Laws and theories on objective facts gained by observing phenomena
- Uses empiricism: knowledge gained from experience or observation
- Uses objectivity: researcher doesn’t involve their opinions, biases and prejudices
- Empirical knowledge is gained through experiments ( testing different relationships between variables)
- Theories and laws tested over and over by replication become accepted as scientific knowledge
4
Q
[🧪] what are the 5 features of science
A
- Empirical
- Testable: empirical knowledge should be repeatedly tested, revisited, open to verification and refutation
- Theoretical: explain casual relationships ( explains why something happens)
- Cumulative: scientific theory builds on previous knowledge
- Objective
5
Q
[📗] which sociologists believed that sociology is a science ?
A
- Comte, Durkheim and Marx
- Positivists
6
Q
[📗] what are positivists view on sociology ?
A
- Sociology can ad should use methods of natural sciences
- Sociologists should use Quantitative methods that aim to identify and measure social structures
- Durkheim: real laws are discoverable that will explain patterns of behaviour
7
Q
[📗] what is induction/inductive reason and inductive logic ?
A
- Induction/inductive reasoning: accumulating data about the world through careful observation and measurement
- Inductive logic: type of reasoning that involves moving from a set of specific facts to a general conclusion
8
Q
[📗] what do positivist think about social facts and what are the features of social facts ?
A
- Our behaviour is a result of social facts
1. They are external to individuals
2. They constrain individuals, shaping their behaviour
3. Greater than individuals ( exist on a higher level )
9
Q
[📗] How does social facts influence sociology
A
- In sociology we might explain the social fact of educational failure with another social fact of material deprivation
- Therefore sociologists seek to discover the causes and patterns they observe, aiming to produce general statements and scientific laws on how society works
- Resulting in the ability to predict future events and guide social policies
10
Q
[📗] what is verification ?
A
- ## Inductive reasoning claims to verify a theory - which is proving it is true
11
Q
[📗] what type of explanations do positivists prefer?
A
- Macro or structural explanations. Eg: functionalism or Marxism
- because macro theories see society and it’s structures as social facts that exist outside us and shape our behaviour
12
Q
[📗] why do positivists use quantitative data ?
A
- Uncovers and measures patterns of behaviour
- Produces mathematically precise statements about the relationship between facts
- Analysing quantitative data discovers the laws of cause
13
Q
[📗] why do positivists prefer objective research ?
A
- Researchers should be detached and objective
- They should not let their subjective feelings, values or prejudice influence how they conduct their research or analyse their findings
- HOWEVER: sociology deals with people, therefore there is danger that the researcher may contaminate the research. Eg: influencing interviewees to answer in ways that reflect the researchers opinion
- Therefore us the most objective quantitative methods like: questionnaires, structured interviews and statistics. These methods are reliable
14
Q
[📗] Explain positivism and suicide?
A
- Durkheim: used the comparative method
- Used official statistics to observe the patterns of suicide rates
- Findings: rates for protestants were higher than catholics
- This was a result of social facts of integration and regulation
- Eg: catholics were less likely to commit suicide due to being more successful in integrating individuals
- Real law: different levels of integration and regulation produce different rates of suicide
15
Q
[📘] what Sociologists say sociology is not a science
A
- Interpretivists
- Weber, Mead, Douglas, Atkinson
16
Q
[📘] what is the subject matter of sociology
A
- Subject matter us meaningful social action, we can understand sociology by successfully interpreting the meaning and motives of the actors involved
- sociology is about unobservable internal meanings, not external causes and effects like science
17
Q
[📘] what is the difference between natural science and sociology ?
A
- natural science: studies matters which have no consciousness. Behaviour can be explained by a straightforward reaction to an external stimulus. Eg: apple falling to the ground - gravity
- Sociology: studies people who have a conscious, people make sense of and construct their own worlds by attaching meanings to it
- actions can only be understood by meaning, meanings are internal to peoples consciousness
- MEAD: rather than responding automatically to external stimulus, humans interpret tge meanings of stimulus and then choose how to respond
18
Q
[📘] Verstehen and quality research
A
- WEBER
- Verstehen: empathy ( to have an empathic understanding to grasp meanings)
- We need to put ourselves in the place of the actor seeing from their perspective therefore researchers must abandon objectivity
- Qualitative methods like: participant observation, unstructured interviews and personal documents are used
- These methods produce high validity and give the sociologists the subject understanding of the actor’s meaning
19
Q
[ 📘] Interpretivism and suicide
A
DOUGLAS
->Rejects positivist ideas on suicide, to understand suicide we must uncover its meanings for those involved
-> Quantitative data like stats are a social construction resulting from the way coroners label certain deaths as suicide
-> We should use qualitative data from suicide case studies to reveal the actors meaning and give us a better idea of the real rate of suicide
ATKINSON
-> Statistics are socially constructed
-> we can never know the real rate of suicide, even with using qualitative methods
20
Q
[📘] what is the postmodern view on sociology and science ?
A
- Science is just one more ‘ big story’ - meta narrative
- A scientific approach is a dangerous approach as it claims a monopoly of truth therefore excluding other points of view
21
Q
[📘] what is the late-modern view on sociology and science ?
A
- Science has not always led to the progress that positivists claimed it would
- Eg: it has led to the emergence of Beck’s ‘ risk society ‘ such as science created dangers like nuclear weapons and global warming undermines the idea that science brings benefits to humankind
22
Q
[📒] what is the fallacy of induction ?
A
- POPPER
- We should reject verifactionism
- Illustrated by his examples of Swans. We might make a generalisation that all swans are white , we can’t prove that all swans are white - an observation of a black swan will destroy the theory.
- We can never prove a theory is true simply by producing more observations that verify it.
23
Q
[📒] what is falsification ?
A
- POPPER
- a scientific statement is one that is capable of being falsified - proven wrong - by the evidence
- Eg: a test would disapprove the law of gravity if, when we let go of an object it would not fall
24
Q
[📒] According to Popper what are two features that make a good theory?
A
- If it is in principle falsifiable, when tested it stands up to all attempts to disprove it
- It is bold - it makes big generalisations that precisely predict a large number of cases or events, and so at greater risk of being falsified
- sociology could then be a science, but only when it produces testable, falsifiable hypotheses
- However this is difficult as much of sociology is unobservable therefore not falsifiable. Eg how can we falsify Marx’s false class conscious
25
Q
[📒] what is Kuhn’s view on sociology and science ?
A
- He sits on the fence
26
Q
[📒] what are the 3 paradigm shifts/revolutions that science went through ?
A
- Pre- science: period of discovery when there was no central paradigm
- Normal science: where scientists used an establish paradigm ( like theory of evolution) to support theories
- Revolutionary science : where the paradigms are challenged
27
Q
[📒] what are paradigm shifts ?
A
- Take place when theories in normal science ( eg: idea that the MMR jab is totally safe) are challenged by revolutionary science ( Eg: Wakefield argued it caused autism).
- when one (old) way of thinking is shoved away by a newer way of thinking
28
Q
[📒] what kind of science is sociology ?
A
- Sociology it’s at its pre-science stage.
- There’s no dominant perspective and there are lots of competing theories and perspective. Therefore sociology is a young science still finding its unifying theory
- we will never get to the truth and that science isn’t as objective as we’d like it to be.
- HOWEVER: LAKATOS- Kuhn’s ideas are too simplistic and in the contemp world, ideas are not abandoned even if new discoveries are made
29
Q
[🟪] what are realists perspective on sociology ?
A
- KEAT and URRY
- There’s similarities between sociology and certain kinds of natural science
- They talk between the difference between open and closed systems.
30
Q
[🟪] what is a closed system ?
A
- Researcher can control and measure all the relevant variables and therefore can make precise predictions
- Eg: lab experiments - similar to sciences like Physics and Chemistry
31
Q
[🟪] what is an open system ?
A
- Researcher can’t control and measure all the relevant variables and so can’t make precise predictions
- Eg: it’s difficult predicting crime rates - there are too many variables
32
Q
[🟪] what are the underlying structures?
A
- KEAT & URRY
- reject the positivists view: that science is only concerned with observing phenomena, physicists can’t directly see black holes but are still interested in them
- reject interpretivists: sociology can be scientific and study unobservable phenomena
- therefore both natural and social science can explain the causes of events. We can see structures exist by observing the effects of the structures
- Eg: you may not be able to see social class, but you can see the effects of social class
