Assess the view that sociology can and should be seen as a science (33)
Lauren Harmon
Assess the view that sociology can and should be seen as a science (33)
Sociology is seen by some as a science, where facts can be obtained by collecting date etc. Sociology is actually referred to as a social science, along with other subjects like politics and economics. This is because it is a branch of science that studies society and the relationships of individual within a society. Sociologists in the 19th century believed that by using the rules and logic of the scientific method it could be applied to sociology the same way as it is applied in the natural sciences. The subjects that are known as sciences are, subjects like chemistry and biology, which involves explanations and reasons. However, before anyone can begin to consider if sociology can be described as a science, it has to be made clear what is meant by a science.
The general explanation of science is, a way of understanding and explaining the world. When studying something in science, a scientific method is used. The processes involved with scientific methods are, something is observed, an explanation for the event is given, and an experiment/research is conducted. For many this is what sociology does, it tries to explain the understanding of the world and the social groups within it.
Positivist's theory is based on the belief that explanations and knowledge should be based on empirical scientific method. They think that sociology is scientific, and analyse social facts. Social facts are the values, cultural norms, and social structures external to the individual. Social facts can be directly observed and measured. Positivists look for correlations in Data, and cause and effect relationships. To do this, they use quantitative data and methods such as questionnaires in order to gain trends, patterns and correlation. EXAMPLE
They also use official statistics, which are objective and reliable.
Weber explains, anything ...
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Positivist's theory is based on the belief that explanations and knowledge should be based on empirical scientific method. They think that sociology is scientific, and analyse social facts. Social facts are the values, cultural norms, and social structures external to the individual. Social facts can be directly observed and measured. Positivists look for correlations in Data, and cause and effect relationships. To do this, they use quantitative data and methods such as questionnaires in order to gain trends, patterns and correlation. EXAMPLE
They also use official statistics, which are objective and reliable.
Weber explains, anything that has hierarchy system or some sort of rules/ regulations to follow is going to be scientific, and sociology has these. Therefore sociology must be a science. He also uses the term disenchantment to explain why sociology should be seen as a science, religion is losing its mysticism because it cannot prove anything therefore religion is getting replaced by science, because science can bring proof of things what have happened etc. Also, more people look into science now instead because religion has lost its significance. However sociologists can contradict this argument with rationalisation. As explained above, people want proof within their belief system, but science cannot explain miracles. Therefore it can seem impossible to some sociologists to define sociology as a science.
Realists claim that positivists and popper have failed to define science accurately. They believe that science can have a lack of precision, for example, doctors cannot predict with a certainty who will become ill, and sociology has similar problems. Sociologists can't be expected to predict exactly what the divorce rate will be in a couple of years. Popper believes that a theory proven correct cannot be correct all of the time; he believes that scientists do indeed spend much of their time experimentally finding that the results of their tests agree with the predictions of their theories, it is only when experimental results are inconsistent with a hypothesis, falsifying it, that a new hypothesis is likely to be formulated. He says that scientists without knowing twist their experiments or observations to generate the results they expect, to avoid the replacement of old theories by new ones. Therefore, sociology isn't a science.
However, if sociology where to be a science, sociology would have to be value-free, and sociologists, as scientists, should not be interested in changing society, they should be more interested in observing and explaining society. Interpretive sociologists claim that there is a difference between sociology and natural science. They think that sociology doesn't suit scientific methods. They believe that humans are active, conscious beings who make choices therefore research cannot be objective. They try to understand human behaviour from the point of view of the individual, so they use methods that let them discover the meanings, motives and reasons behind human behaviour and social interaction. What makes a social event social is that those involved in it give it broadly the same meaning; Weber's account of the growth of capitalism is a good example that sociology is a science. It showed not only that Calvinism was the independent variable (cause), only present in Europe, but also how a belief in Calvinism would make someone behave in the way he described. It follows that if we want to understand peoples' actions we have first to understand them in the way that the participants do.
Some sociologists believe that science has no more claims on the truth than any other belief system. Scientists are human beings at the end of the day, and no human being can be 100% correct. Also, all scientists will be subjective in their research, even if they say they are not.
Anti-Positivist, Kuhn, says that sociology should not be seen as a science because sociologists do not agree on one accepted paradigm. Postmodernists believe that science is just a Meta narrative claiming to provide comprehensive explanations of the world, and also claim a monopoly of truth. They believe that science has lost its authority in society, as it has failed to provide cures for many of the killer degenerative diseases in western society, such as cancer and heart disease.
