science Flashcards
key issues in sociology and science
- is sociology a scientific subject at this point in time?
- can sociology be a scientific subject?
- should it be a scientific subject?
popper - falsification
- critical of inductive reasoning
- for a theory to be scientific, it should be open to falsification; you must be able to research it in a way that allows you to see if it can be proved wrong or not. if proved worng the hypothesis must be discarded
- popper argued some areas of sociology aren’t open to falsification and can’t be considered scientific e.g for a researcher to see if there won’t be a revolution by the WC in the future
evals of popper
- feyerabend; no such thing as a scientific method that is good for all times and places. individual scientists follow their own rules which is why many scientific discoveries are made almost by accident and inspired guesses, imagination and luck play a crucial role in scientific research
- in practice, it’s very difficult to falsify a theory; if an experiment disproves a theory, the researcher can claim it was the experiment that was at fault, not the idea
- whilst a theory might seem false now, with the development of accurate scientific techniques it may be proved correct in the future
positivists - science
inductive reasoning- start by gathering the facts and then, based on the facts, devise a theory
— once data is used to devise an explanation, predictions about the future can be made
kaplan
argues there’s a gap between reconstructed logics and logic-in-use i.e a gap between the idealised account of scientific research and the mistakes made in the real process of carrying out research
- therefore scientific knowledge is socially constructed
kuhn
- new theories develop when a new paradigm replaces the current one (a paradigm shift occurs). new discoveries, with too much supporting evidence to ignore, cause a significant change in the dominant, unifying theory within a scientific discipline
- sociology is then like it’s in the pre-science stage: there’s no dominant perspectives and there are lots of competing theories and perspectives
interpretivism - is sociology a science
- sociologists need methods of research that allow us to understand how people see the world e.g unstructured interviews ask open questions
- each subject should develop research that best fit what they study. interpretivists reject the view that sociology should be scientific
- sociologists cant carry out research in controlled conditions. every situation is different, and each persons understanding of their situation differs. your views are shaped by class, gender, ethnicity, age etc. it’s hard to isolate one of these from the others. therefore, scientific techniques can’t be used to study the social world
postmodernism and science
- science has failed in its project to control and improve the world. scientific developments have contributed to industry and created problems like climate change, pollution, antibiotic resistance superbugs and nuclear weapons
- pointless trying to find the wider causes of behaviour as these will be specific to each individual. best way is to find out about society is to look at the meanings people give to their own lives
- the scientiofic world view and the idea of scientific sociology evolved out the enlightenment and modernity - the belief that there was ‘one truth’ and science could reveal it. postmodernists challenge the idea that science produces the truth about the natural world
rorty
scientists have just replaced priests as the source of truth - we want experts to explain the world to us. however, there are still many unanswered questions about the nature of reality even with science
realism and science
science resembles an open systems science:
- not all science is based on observable phenomena e.g earthquakes or black holes. this is similar to sociology, where researchers cannot directly measure a person’s opinions
- also similar in that researchers do not always have complete control over variables and cannot make predictions e.g it is not always possible for scientists to predict the weather. similarly in sociology ppts can answer an open questions in any way they want and say what they want
- this means that interpretivists are wrong in suggesting that the study of ‘meanings’ and ‘thoughts’ and ‘motivations’ cannot be scientific. just because something is not ‘observable’ its effects generally are and therefore can be studied scientifically
feminism and science
- malestream sociology has often marginalised and ignored womens lives. feminist methodology designed to reflect feminist ideals and values
- they don’t want sociology to be a science
structured interviews: Hierarchical; power imbalance between researcher and ppt. researcher gets info out of ppt, ppt gets nothing in return. Closed question; do not help researchers understand the experiences and reality of womens life. e.g what it is like to have then dual burden
keat and urry
stresses the similarities between sociology and certain kinds of natural science in terms of the degree of control the researcher has over the variables being researched
