is sociology a science Flashcards
positivists
science creates empirical and objective data
sociollogy about finging patterns in society and contrasting and comparing data
sociology can and should be scientific as its objective through verification and inductive reasoning
methods used are scientific (quantitative, reliable) - deatached (non-participant observation and official statistics)
Durkheim - suicide social fact through the independent variables of regulation and integration
discovered pattern - italy constant low suicide rates down to catholics being tightly integrated into shared rituals
sociology is objective and verified using quantifiable research methods
introduction
sociologists divided
positivists and interpretivists
depends on how science is defined
interpretivism
sociology isnt and shouldnt be a science
sociology subjective - aim to understand hidden meanings behind behaviours
subjective methods (qualitative and valid) - participant observation
atkinson - studied suicide found it to be social construction
observations in coroners court - coroners interpret the deaths and place label on it
sociology not a science - cannot be objective and verified
meaning - verstehen (Weber)
Popper - falsifications
science needs to be falsifiable and have highest degree of objectivity - sociology doesnt fulfil either
falsification - try and prove theory wrong
marxism - proletariat revolution yet to happen (cant be falsified)
cant be proved wrong (not objective) - falls into fallacy of induction (verification) finding evidenece to prove theory rather than disproving it
until a hypothesis can be falsified, sociology cannot be a science
Kuhn - paradigns
isnt a science - science has common paradigns all scientists work under
sociology conflicting theories - for sociology to become a science has to have agreement on one overarching theory
paradigm - set of values, beliefs, and assumptions within which scientists operate
all scientists work under this, research funded if it best fits to paradigm
sociology in pre-paradigm state in which thers not one paradigm
until conflicts resolved/ one theory agreed on - no paradigm and therefore not scientific
scoiology pre-science and therefore has ability to evolve
postmodernists - scientific paradigm another metanarrative bringing nothing new to society/ improving it (has no more value than any other perspective)
realists (open and closed systems)
depends on how we define science
closed system (is not) - researcher can control variables and makes prediciton Popper advocates (methods like experiments)
open system (can be) - little control over varibales and cannot make precise predictions
conclusion
what perspective and what studied
positivist vs interpretivist
looking into evidence - clear it is not due to the balance of the argument
