value freedom Flashcards
positivists - sociology can be value free
- approach sees sociology as scientific and objective
- sociology therefore must be value free
- emphasis is placed on reliability
- results must be verified against other social facts
classical positivists
- comte; scientific sociology would one day reveal the ideal society to live in - sociologists would be able to prescribe how things ought to be
- marx; claimed that the purpose in his analysis of capitalism was to scientifically reveal to the WC the inequality and exploitation that underpinned this economic system, this would lead to the WC to overthrow capitalism and bring about the birth of communist society. marx also saw scientific sociology as helping to ‘deliver’ a better society
criticisms of early positivists
- research is inherently value laden; the sociologist designs the questionaire, writes the qs, interprets the data. they might’ve ignored data that didn’t fit their value judgements
- most research funded by govt, businesses and voluntary organisations. if the body pays for the research, they control the direction it takes and the kind of qs it asks
- sociologists may censor themselves for fear of harming their career prospects
weber- value freedom
- saw an essential role for values in sociological research
- weber sees values as relevant to the sociologist in choosing what to research, in interpreting the data collected and in deciding the use to which the findings should be put.
by contrast, the sociologists values must be kept out of the actual process of facts gathering
phillips
data collection is itself a social process so we can expect bias and invalidity to arise out of the effects of interaction with research subjects
gouldner - sociology should not be value free, even if it were possible
- gouldner argues that valuefree sociology is a myth bc it is impossible to separate sociologists from what they observe - knowledge does not exists outside of people, it is a social product, the result of human actions and values
value free sociology is both…
committed sociology
- impossible
- undesirable
gouldner - funding and careers
argued by some sociologists that what gets studied by sociologists depends upon those with power making value judgements about what is interesting and worthwhile
gomm
notes that most funding for sociological research comes from the govt and big businesses
becker - value freedom
- sociology should not be value free
- we should look at the ‘underdog’ i.e the powerless, criminals, patients etc
gouldner’s criticism against becker
- criticised becker for taking a romantic and sentimental approach to disadvantaged groups. he takes a marx approach and argues that sociology should be committed by ending oppression by unmasking the ways in which the powerful maintain their position
myrdal - sociology cannot be value free
- objectivity is ideal to strive for, but is difficult to achieve
- all scientists are prone to bias
- social scientists are more prone because they are part of the subject matter they study
- sociologists should make their value position clear from the onset - ‘take a side’
interpretivists -sociology cannot be value free
-value position is expressed in choice of topic
- sociologists values may be expressed in the interpretation of findings
kuhn ( value freedom)
value freedom is a myth even amongst the physical scientists
- all scientists are influenced by paradigms
- these must inevitably influence research and the evaluation of conflicting findings
postmodernist view on value freedom
- criticise the view that rationale, scientific thinking supported by quantifiable evidence is superior to any other way of understanding the social world
- it is impossible to produce any objective, value free knowledge - knowledge/facts are simply the viewpoint of one particular social group
- postmodernists take a relativist view which argues that different groups have different views of what is true, no independent way of judging which is truer than any other
