SOCIOLOGY AND SCIENCE - POSITIVISM Flashcards
How does science relate with the Enlightenment?
Science was fundamental for the Enlightenment Project (18th Century).
Enlightenment thinkers were impressed by the successes of science in explaining nature.
They believed that natural sciences such as physics, chemistry, and biology that would produce objective knowledge.
How does the Enlightenment relate to sociology?
The successes of science made a powerful impression on the 19th century sociologists such as Comte, Durkheim and Marx, as they wanted to copy its successes by producing a science of society.
Like natural sciences, the true knowledge of society would eradicate issues of poverty, and injustice.
What did August Comte do? Who is he?
August Comte, coined the term ‘sociology’. Many sociologists like him described themselves as positivists.
They believe that it is desirable to apply the logic and methods of natural sciences to study society. This will bring us objective and true knowledge.
What are the two fundamental features of Positivism?
- Nature is made up of observable and physical facts such as rocks, and cells, and stars. They are external to our minds and exist regardless of whether we like it.
- In similarity, society is an objective and factual reality because it is a real thing that exists externally independent of individuals like the physical world.
- PATTERNS, LAWS AND INDUCTIVE REASONING
What do positivists believe about reality?
Positivists don’t believe that reality is not random or chaotic, but rather, it is patterned.
We can observe these regularities e.g., the fact that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.
Science observes, identifies, measures, and records these patterns systematically (through experimentation) before explaining them.
- PATTERNS, LAWS AND INDUCTIVE REASONING
What do positivists believe about real laws…?
Positivists believe that (Durkheim’s words) that real laws are discoverable – this will explain these patterns (suicide)
- PATTERNS, LAWS AND INDUCTIVE REASONING
What does inductive reasoning mean?
Physicists have discovered laws that govern workings of nature e.g., gravity.
The method for discovering laws that determine how society works is called induction/inductive reasoning.
- PATTERNS, LAWS AND INDUCTIVE REASONING
What does inductive reasoning entail?
This process involved accumulating data about the world through observation and measurement.
As our wealth of knowledge increases, we see patterns. E.g., when objects are observed, when dropped, they always fall at the same rate of acceleration
- VERIFICATION
What happens after we have developed a theory that explains our observations so far?
We have developed a theory that explains our observations so far (through inductive reasoning), and after more observations have confirmed our theory, we can claim to have discovered the truth through general law.
- VERIFICATION
What is verifications?
*example of gravity
E.g., we can confirm that gravity exists universally and so because inductive reasoning claims to verify a theory… this is called verificationism
- VERIFICATION
What do positivist sociologists seek to discover?
In sociology, we might explain social facts (say, educational failure) in terms of another social fact (material deprivation).
Positivist sociologists seek to discover causes of patterns they observe.
- VERIFICATION
What do positivist sociologists’ work do for the general society?
The work (seeking to discover causes of the patterns they observe) then helps them to predict future events and to guide social policies.
- OBJECTIVE QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
What method do positivists believe sociologists should use for research?
Positivists believe that sociology should take the experimental method used in the sciences as the model for research, because this allows for the testing of hypothesis in the most systematic and controlled way.
Similar to the natural scientists, positivists use the quantitative data to uncover and measure patterns of behaviour.
- OBJECTIVE QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
What does this kind of research do for the positivists?
This allows them to produce mathematically precise statements about the relationship between the facts they are investigating.
Analysing quantitative data allows positivists to discover the laws of cause and effect
- OBJECTIVE QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
What does ‘contamination of research mean’?
Positivists believe that researchers should be objective and should not let their personal feelings influence how they conduct research.
When dealing with people in sociology, it is incredibly easy to ‘contaminate’ the research, by influencing the interviewees to answer in a way that reflects the researcher’s opinion and not their own.
