should sociology be a science

Question 1

positivism - what is a science

Answer 1

• an experimental procedure that produces knowledge that is certain
• science uses inductive reasoning
• based on objective observation of patterns
• to produce theories that are verified through replication

Question 2

positivism - can sociology be a science

Answer 2

can be:

• subject matter of society similar to natural science - humans react to external forces - caused and predictable
• social world is patterned - possible to observe, identify, measure and record these patterns to discover laws
• quantitative methods - allow replicate methods of natural sciences - producing reliable objective data - show correlations and causality

Question 3

positivism - should sociology be a science

Answer 3

should
- using the logic and methods of natural sciences brings us true, objective knowledge

• produces empirical evidence
• results can be used to generalise, establish laws of cause and effect and make predictions
• basis for solving social problems and achieving progress

Question 4

advantages of positivist theory

Answer 4

• status
• funding
• representativeness - helps to solve global social issues
• trends do exist - objectivity/ reliability eg education

Question 5

limitations of positivist theory

Answer 5

• differences between society and natural world - different people act in same way for different reasons - revealed through qualitative methods
• problems of predictions - humans are not passive robots - consciousness to make active decisions

Question 6

interpretivism - can sociology be a science

Answer 6

cannot

• subject matter of society is not similar to natural science
• humans do not react in a causal way to external forces
• humans act in terms of feelings, meanings and emotions and interpret events during social interaction
• not possible to study humans objectively - all research is subjective and value laden
• much of what positivists claim are social facts are social constructions

Question 7

interpretivism - should sociology be a science

Answer 7

should not

• not desirable to be scientific - quantitative methods obscure and hide the truth
• favour qualitative methods for meanings behind actions
• non-scientific approach generates data that is highly valid

Question 8

feminism - can and should sociology be a science

Answer 8

cannot
- quantitative methods of science cannot capture the reality of women’s experience

should not
- science leads to malestream view and understanding of the world
- science searched for single absolute truths - a single scientific feminist theory would privilege the views of some groups of women over others

Question 9

karl popper - what is a science

Answer 9

popper - all knowledge is provisional, temporary, capable of refutation at any moment - potentially falsified at any moment

hawking - no matter how many times the results of experiments agree with some theory - you can never be sure that the next time the result will not contradict the theory

Question 10

karl popper - the scientific method

Answer 10

rejects positivist view
- use inductive reasoning - observe world then generalise based on observation
- use verification - proving something is true through repetition

popper - black swan theory
- no matter how many swans we observe we cannot prove all swans are white - a single swan destroys the theory

popper - science should use hypothetico-deductive method - drawing up questions for research based on previous research

Question 11

popper’s hypothetico-deductive method

Answer 11

hypothesis formation - forming ideas

falsification - aim of testing hypotheses is to try to prove them wrong

prediction - through establishing cause and effect relationships - precise predictions can be established

theory formation - if hypothesis capable of being tested and cannot be shown to be false then confidence hypothesis is sound

scrutiny - a scientific theory will be scrutinised by other scientists until someone proves its false

Question 12

popper - implications for sociology

Answer 12

sociology not currently scientific - consists of theories that are not falsifiable eg marxism

sociology can be scientific because it can produce falsifiable theories

Question 13

karl popper eval

Answer 13

• positivists argue scientists use verification not falsification so sociology should do the same
• interpretivists argue popper is irrelevant - people have consciousness so cannot be studied scientifically

Question 14

objectivity of science - bruno latour

Answer 14

bruno latour - science as a construction of versions of reality

• scientists spend a lot of time trying to get funding - have little incentive to disprove ideas
• funding bodies distort the agenda of scientific research

Question 15

objectivity of science - Kuhn

Answer 15

paradigms and scientific revolutions

disagree with popper
- scientific communities develop commitment to shared paradigm - knowledge evolves within dominant paradigm

scientists resist new observations which do not support the paradigm
scientific knowledge evolves through series of revolutions making shifts between different paradigms

Question 16

kuhn - implications for sociology

Answer 16

cannot be science
- sociology is pre-scientific - no shared paradigms but a variety eg functionalism, marxism

• not clear that it is possible for sociology to become a science
• may not be desirable for sociology to become scientific - conflict between perspectives is a critical element of sociology

Question 17

Kuhn eval

Answer 17

• idea of paradigms too simplistic - only applies to past - modern science more sophisticated and open-thinking
• in sociology - a single paradigm rarely been dominant - functionalism popular paradigm 1950s and 1960s - marxism and weberism open to sociologists too

Question 18

postmodernism - can and should sociology by a science

Answer 18

cannot
- unable to capture the multiple truths that explain the world

should not
- science - metanarrative - all knowledge is story-telling - no way to distinguish between true and untrue stories
- use postmodern ethnography - allow us to collect different stories

Question 19

modernity, postmodernity and science

Answer 19

Ian Angell - just because science works, doesnt mean its ture

science can explain how but not why things happen

in terms of finding the truth - science no better than religion

postmodernists - we should see other knowledge systems as equally legitimate as science - science is just one way of understanding the world

Question 20

realism - what is a science

Answer 20

closed systems
- all variables can be measured

open systems
- all variables cannot be measured and precise predictions cannot be made

Question 21

realism and science

Answer 21

science are able to create closed systems fairly easily - due to limited number of variables which can all be controlled

open systems eg meteorology - science but unlikely to make accurate and precise predictions

society is an example of an open system
- too many variables however still underlying structures to allow for probability predictions

Andrew Sayer - social sciences are no different from physical sciences

Question 22

realism - implications for sociology

Answer 22

can and should be a science

sociology is scientific but societies are complex open systems - making precise predictions impossible

can still be seen as scientific if studies unobservable meanings and motives