Is Sociology A Science?

Question 1

Who believes sociology is a science?

Answer 1

MARX
DURKHEIM
COMTE

Question 2

Who believes sociology isn’t a science?

Answer 2

WEBER
POPPER
KUHN

Question 3

What did comte say (social facts)

Answer 3

he looked at social facts and said we can change/shape peoples behavior through discovering laws

Question 4

What did Durkheim say (quantitative methods)

Answer 4

he believers sociology is a science
but says comte failed to establish sociology as a science.

durkeim thought instead that sociology should study social facts as things to observe and measure e.g. suicide rates

he said sociologist should use objective methods like experiments, questionnaires and stats

Question 5

What did Popper say (falsification)

Answer 5

Popper disagrees with Durkheim and says sociology isn’t a science.

he says no 1 theory can be 100% true

he talks about the falsification method and says that science works by falsification and can only ever be deemed true or false.

if it can’t be proven or disproven it isn’t scientific

Question 6

What did Weber say (subjective)

Answer 6

weber agrees with popper and says sociology isn’t a science.

he says sociology should study society from the prospetvie of other people to understand how and why things happen

using webers perspective requires subjective understanding which draws on peoples opinions

Question 7

What did Kuhn say (Paradigm)

Answer 7

Kuhn says sociology isn’t a science and agrees with weber

this is because there is no shared assumptions and principles

functionalism, marxism, fem all have differing ideas

if these could be resolved to create one paradigm then sociology could be a science but is unlikely.