sociology and science

Question 1

sociology is a science - Comte

Answer 1

science is there to explain how things relate to each other, using laws. it is possible to discover the laws that control and shape the behaviour of people in society. therefore, the main task of sociology is to discover general laws pf social development through:
- laws of coexistence: looking at the relationship between parts of society
- laws of succession: laws that govern social change

Question 2

sociology is a science - Durkheim

Answer 2

criticised Comte in arguing he has failed to study sociology as a science. instead, he believed sociology is a science because we can study social facts as things to observe and measure e.g. suicide rate

Question 3

sociology is a science - inductive logic and positivism

Answer 3

inductive logic is a feature of positivism that makes a general conclusion from a set of specific facts. it uses objects that have been examined and experiments have been conducted to establish a conclusion from a set of specific facts. it uses objects that have been examined and experiments that have been conducted to establish a conclusion about an object that has not been examined

Question 4

sociology is not a science - Popper

Answer 4

for sociology to be a science it must undergo a process of falsification. in order to of this, the theory myst use an inductive method and then be challenged by a deductive method to prove it wrong. however, sociology cannot be a science because it cannot undergo falsification, due to how many sociological ideas are too abstract to be tested

Question 5

sociology is not a science - Weber

Answer 5

uses interpretivism to study sociology from a subjective perspective. this draws on the ideas of verstehen which means sociology requires a subjective understanding which relates to opinions. however science is strongly objective and could not be considered a science, nor should it want to be a science

Question 6

sociology is and isn’t a science - Kuhn

Answer 6

scientific theory exists because it has undergone a series of paradigm shifts (an old way of thinking is replaced by a new one), whereby there is a unified theory and/or perspective that supports the scientific claim. in this instance, there are 3 stages:

• pre-science: a period of discovery where there was no central paradigm
• normal science: scientists used an established paradigm to support their theory
• revolutionary science: paradigms are challenged

Kuhn argues sociology will never pass the period of pre-science because sociology does not have a dominant perspective