How Science Grows, Paradigms and Realism and Science

Question 1

who says that many systems of thought claim to have true knowledge about the world?

Answer 1

Popper

Question 2

why does Popper reject verificationism?

Answer 2

due to the fallacy of induction - he uses the example of swans - having observed a large number of white swans we might assume that all swans are white, it is easily to make further observations to verify this but it still cannot prove all swans are white, so we can never prove a theory is true simply by producing more observations that support it

Question 3

what is induction?

Answer 3

Induction is a process of moving from observation of particular instances of something to arrive at a general statement or law

Question 4

what makes science unique is falsificationism which means…

Answer 4

a scientific statement can be proved wrong by evidence. we must be able to say what could falsify a statement when we come to test it.

Question 5

what does Hawking say?

Answer 5

‘no matter how any times the result of the experiments agree with some theory, you can never be sure that the next time the result will not be contradictory.’

Question 6

Popper sees scientific theories as open to criticism so flaws can be exposed and better theories develop, what does this explain?

Answer 6

why scientific knowledge grows so quickly

Question 7

why does science thrive in liberal societies and not in closed societies? give an example

Answer 7

because they believe in free expression and the right to challenge accepted ideas. closed societies are dominated by belief systems that claim to have ultimate truth this stifles the growth of science. for example Galileo was punished for heresy by the church in Rome for claiming the earth revolved around the sun

Question 8

much of sociology is unscientific and cannot be put to the test with falsification, give an example

Answer 8

Marx predicted that there would be a revolution leading to a classless society this hasn’t happened yet so prediction cannot be falsified so whether there is a revolution or not marxism is still correct

Question 9

how does Popper suggest that sociology can be scientific?

Answer 9

when it produces hypotheses which can be tested and possibly falsified

Question 10

give an example of sociology being scientific

Answer 10

Ford hypothesised that comprehensive schooling would produce social mixing of pupils and was able to test this through empirical research

Question 11

why does Popper believe that untestable ideas aren’t worthless?

Answer 11

because they may be of value if they become testable at some later date

Question 12

explain what a paradigm is

Answer 12

it is shared by members of the scientific community and defines what their science is
it provides a basic framework of principles and methods within which members work, its a set of norms which scientists accept uncritically which they are rewarded for with career success

Question 13

why cant science exist without a paradigm?

Answer 13

without general consensus there can only be rival schools of thought, not a science

Question 14

what does Watkins observe about Popper and Kuhn?

Answer 14

that Popper sees falsification as the unique feature of science while Kuhn argues it is the existence of paradigms

Question 15

sometimes findings are contrary to the paradigm, what happens when these findings add up?

Answer 15

confidence in the paradigm declines and it breaks down and is replaced with a new one

Question 16

scientists sometimes form rival paradigms and start attempting scientific revolutions. why are the 2 paradigms incommensurable?

Answer 16

they cannot be judged on the same set of standards because supporters of the rival paradigm will not even recognise a test as valid because each one has a different way of seeing the world

Question 17

eventually one paradigm wins and becomes accepted by the scientific community, however the process isn’t rational, what does Kuhn compare it to and why?

Answer 17

religious conversion
it first gains support of younger scientists who have less to lose than older ones whose reputations are built on the old one

Question 18

according to Planck why does the new paradigm triumph?

Answer 18

because its opponents eventually die

Question 19

sociology is pre-paradigmatic and therefore pre-scientific because ….

Answer 19

there is no agreement on the fundamentals of what to study, how to study it etc

Question 20

What does Kuhn suggests is the only way sociology could become a science and why is this unlikely to happen?

Answer 20

could only become a science if basic disagreements were solved but it is likely rival perspectives will continue to exist

Question 21

why do postmodernists argue that a paradigm wouldn’t be desirable in sociology?

Answer 21

because it is like a metanarrative which they reject as it silences minority views and falsely claims special access to the truth

Question 22

how do realists Keat and Urry distinguish between open and closed systems in science and sociology?

Answer 22

closed is where the researcher can control and measure all relevant variables and can make precise predictions like in lab experiments
open systems are those where the researcher cannot make precise predictions e.g. the weather cannot be predicted with with 100% accuracy because the processes involved are too complex to measure or too large scale to be studied in a lab

Question 23

Keat and Urry argue that science often assumes the existence of unobservable structures, give an example and explain their argument

Answer 23

physicists cannot directly observe a black hole in space which means interpretivists are wrong in saying sociology isn’t a science due to actors meanings not being directly observable
if scientists can study unobservable phenomena then this is no barrier to studying meanings scientifically