is sociology a science Flashcards
what do positivists argue?
yes it is a science
what do Interpretivists argue?
no it isn’t a science, its a
what does durkheims suicide study demonstrate?
-positivist view
-objective facts about the social world, expressed in stats
-facts aren’t influenced bye researchers personal beliefs
-look for correlations in stats for causal relationships
-durkheim said human behaviour can be explained by external stimuli
-possible to uncover the laws of human behaviour
-only study what you observe to be scientific (not emotions)
-inductive approach (starting with evidence then deriving theory
what are the three ways that the social world is different to the natural world?
-social action theorists say the social world is socially constructed
-cannot understand the world or human action without understanding the meanings people attach to their actions
-some postmodernists say you can only understand the world through language, so there’s no way to directly observe it
what are the two problems with prediction?
-people have consciousness which can vary their responses in a situation
-so if sociology aimed to make predictions it would always be wrong
what was Latour’s view?
-studied the way scientists did their research, finding they spend a lot of time trying to win grants, so there was little incentive to disprove ideas
-scientists formed networks, involving a ‘fierce battle to construct reality’ (eg making a machine purely to prove your theory correct), so if someone challenged views they would be disenrolled from the network
what was Kuhn’s work?
-paradigms limit the questions scientists ask in their research
-most scientists build their careers working in the paradigm, so ignore evidence that doesn’t fit
-scientists that ask questions are marginalised/not taken seriously
-if ‘rogue’ scientists build up enough evidence that a paradigm is false, it causes a paradigm shift
example related to Kuhn’s belief
sutton 2015 - marginal scientists started to find a link between burning fossil fuels and global warming in the 50s, but were dismissed until the 90s
who criticised Kuhn?
lakatos - argued modern science is more open to testing new ideas today than it was in the past
who argued the 2 types of science
sayer
-open (eg meteorology) and closed (eg physics)
-argues sociology can be scientific in the way meteorology is scientific but not in the way physics is
what are closed systems?
-have a limited number of variables interacting, all of which can’t be controlled making it impossible to do lab experiments and impossible to make predictions precise
what are open systems?
-you cannot control all of the variables
-recognises unpredictability
-meteorology still scientific as they make models based on observations do predict weather
-try to find underlying structures which can’t be directly observed, eg magnetic fields which interfere with weather patterns
apply open science to education
-quantitative sociology can reveal hidden structures, making broad predictions like WC are more likely to underachieve than MC, but can’t say exactly who will fail
what do postmodernists say?
-challenge the idea that science produces the truth about the natural world
-scientists have replaced priests as sources of truth (rorty)(wanting experts to explain the truth)
conclude if sociology can be scientific
-positivists say it should aim to be (but has been largely rejected)
-interpretivists say no due to natural reality
-sayer - ‘halfway house’ we can still do quantitative sociology in open system ways
-postmodernists - science closes our minds
