Sociology and Science e

Question 1

What is meant by the term science?

Answer 1

• it a set of principles that tell us how to produce knowledge
• it aims to base law and theories on objective facts

Question 2

What is Empiricism and how is empirical knowledge found

Answer 2

knowledge gained by experiencing and observing something

• to come up with empirical knowledge experiments are carried out to test the relationship between variables

Question 3

What is Objectivism

Answer 3

• Where the research does not involve opinions or prejudice

Question 4

how does empirical knowledge become scientific knowledge

Answer 4

when theories and laws are test over and over again

Question 5

Which sociologists argue sociology is a science

Answer 5

Auguste Compte, Durkheim and Marx

Question 6

what does Auguste Comte argue about sociology being a science

Answer 6

• • it’s possible to discover the laws and theories that shape the behaviour of people in society
• science isn’t there to explain how things came to be but is there to explain how things relate to each other using laws and theories

laws of co-existence - looking at the relationship betweenn parts of society

• laws of succession - what are the laws that govern? us

Question 7

What is inductive logic

Answer 7

• major part of positivism
• reasoning that involves moving form a set of specie facts to a general conclusion
• drawing premises from experiments to come to a conclusion about something that has not been examined

Question 8

What does Durkheim say about Sociology being a science

Answer 8

• Agrees that sociology should be viewed as a science, but thinks Comte failed to explain sociology as a science effectively
• believed sociology should study social facts to observe and measure such as suicide rate

Question 9

What does Marx argue about sociology being a science

Answer 9

• sociology should be seen as a science as he focused on economics

Question 10

What did Karl Popper argue about sociology being a scienc e

Answer 10

• if sociology wanted to be considered a science it should be subjectt to falsification
• therefore sociology must have testable hypotheses

rejects Marxism as a pseudoscience because it is theoretical

Question 11

What is deductive reasoning

Answer 11

• begins with a theory
• the theory is then bombarded with challenges to its hypothesis to test whether it stands up to its claims

Question 12

what is inductive reasoning

Answer 12

• starts with a theory
• then evidence is collected to prove the theory correct

Question 13

What do positivists think about sociology being a science

Answer 13

• positivist Webber wants to understand why things happen
  called “Vertehen
• using Verstehen requires a subjective view using people’s opinions

Therefore can’t be a science as it must be objective not opinion based

Question 14

What does Thomas Kuhn say about sociology being a science e

Answer 14

• it is and isn’t a science
• the history of natural science is not simply an accumulation of knowledge that ends up becoming the knowledge we know as science
• but it went through a series of paradigm shifts