science Flashcards
comte on sociology being a science
- we can apply logic and methods from natural science to sociology
- made up of an ‘objective factual reality’ aka social facts
how do positivists argue sociology discovers new ideologies
induction - accumulating data about world (careful observation and measurement)
can then verify their findings and confirm the universal existence ( verification)
what did durkheim study to show sociology was a science - how did he do this
suicide
official statistics and quantitative data to look at diff rates thru time
interviews to look at how diff levels of integration the deceased had with society
why does popper argue that sociology is a science
- it is capable of producing a hypothesis that can be falsified
- we can deliberately find error within science to disprove it (falsify)
what does popper mean by science being an open system
science must allow for an accumulation of data shared amongst ppl in the community to falsify
- can never be absolute truth in science !!
why can sociology not be falsifiable
There are theories in sociology that cannot be tested and thus cannot be falsified.
For example: ‘Marxism theory of society’ – Marx predicts that there will be a revolution leading to a classless society but this has not happened yet so therefore you cannot test this theory
what does kuhn say must happen for sociology to be a science
once all sociologists adopt a single shared paradigm it can be regarded a science
what does kuhn mean by paradigms defining what science is
they provide a framework of assumptions, methods and principles for the community to follow
- unquestioned by the community and referred to as ‘normal science’
why does kuhn criticise scientists
they are conformists who unquestioningly accept key ideas of paradigm as basis of making progress
what does it mean by pre-paradigmatic
sociology is at this stage where aspects of sociology are completely divided and not shared by a paradigm
for example, is society conflict or consensus
so cannot be a science !!
why do interpretivists argue science cannot be considered a science
sociology focuses on interpreting the meanings, motives and actions of ppl so it isnt a science
science looks at cause and effect not how ppl excercise free will and choices
(ppls behaviour can never be 100% determined by external factors)
Douglas evaluating Durkheims suicide research
sensitive topic has to use qualitative data and unstructured interviews (not offical statistic!)
- he didnt take into account hidden figure of crime so it isnt holistic (not everything has been taken into account)
Glaser and Strauss on the bottom up approach
sociology should take a bottom up approach rather than entering research with a fixed hypothesis - bias
Postmodernists on why sociology is not a science
- science perceived as having monopoly of truth and is one big perspective (meta-narrative)
sociology has multiple truths !! from diff persepctives too !! no form of domination
why does sociology not fit characteristscis of scientific ideologies according to post modernists
- science excludes other perspectives
- sociology is all about collective point of views and detail and verstehen
- post modernists argue sociology is progressive but science forms a ‘theory of domination’ based on statistics and thus has negative consequences( ends up supporting existing power structures)
