sociology as a science

Question 1

what are the 5 aspects of a science?

Answer 1

• Popper
  + empiricism
  + testable
  + theoretical
  + cumulative
  + objective

Question 2

who argues it can + should be considered a science?

Answer 2

classical positivists
Comte
Durkheim

Question 3

what do classical positivists argue?

Answer 3

it is possible + desirable to be a science

• the social world can be researched in the same way as the natural world to create social facts about how society works.
  uses an inductive approach (uses observations to create facts)

Question 4

what does Durkheim argue?

Answer 4

social facts, institutions, beliefs + values can be treated in the same way as objects.

we can objectively measure + statistically analyse the social world.

he thought we could create ‘laws’ about human behaviours + patterns in society.

Question 4

who argues that it could be a science?

Answer 4

+ Modern positivists
+ Paradigms (Kuhn)
+ realists

Question 4

what does Comte argue?

Answer 4

sociology should be based on the same methods as the natural sciences.

if we can fond facts about society we can identify cause + effect.

Question 4

what do modern positivists believe?

Answer 4

it should try to be a science but can’t be
this is because we cannot have a truly scientific approach to society because we cannot establish absolute facts because society has too many variables.

Question 5

what does Popper argue?

Answer 5

he believes that sociology should try to be a science if it uses a deductive model (have a hypothesis + then try and prove or disprove it)
but it is very challenging to do this with society because we cant falsify human behaviour - it has too many variables

Question 6

What does Kuhn argue?