Sociology And Science Flashcards
(6 cards)
Why does Durkheim belives sociology is a science?
Because it can be studied objectively (value free)
He found this through his studies of suicide, where he found that lack of social intergration would always be a contributing factor to suicide rates. he argues this is objective and calls these rules about society ‘social facts’
Why does Popper believe sociology is a science?
Because of falsificationism.
Popper argues that if you are trying to verify a hypothesis you should instead try to falsify it in case there are any flaws in the hypothesis
Popper argues that a true science follows this principle of falsifications s=and sociology could be a science if it creates hypotheses that can be falsified.
Why do Keat and Ury believe sociology is a science?
Sciences are mostly studied under closed systems (controlled conditions) but can in some cases be studied in open systems as you cannot observe a black hole in a closed system.
Therefore sociology can be a science as it can be studied in both ways and also there are things that have objective values but some things can only be studied by the way in which we can observe how people act and are treated differently
Why does douglas believe sociology is not a science?
He argues that you can never know true facts about things such as sucice as you cannot talk to them, you cannot get the true meaning of why.
Statistics on suicide will always be biased and will only ever reflect what the coroner has decided to label that death as a suicide based on their own internal biases
Why do postmodernists belive sociology is not a science?
Science is a meta narrative that is trying to control how people think when we should instead have freedom of thought and expression
Why does Kuhn believe sociology is not a science?
A paradigm is a set of rules or principles that one field of science must follow
- the fact that there is an argument on whether sociology is a science should that sociology does not agree on the rules and principles that sociology should follow
Therefore sociology is not a science
