Assess the view that sociology can and should be seen as a science.
Now sociology is know as a social science, along with subjects like politics and economics. The subjects which are known as sciences are, subjects like chemistry and biology, which involves explanations and reason.
Positivists use quantitative data and methods such as questionnaires in order to gain trends, patterns and correlation. Science is about getting the right answers every time the experiment is done. In science if you get the wrong answer then you have done the experiment wrong, or you have the right answer but it will be dismissed as scientists have proven the correct answer is different to yours. In sociology it is difficult to get a wrong or right answer, as the experiment cannot often be redone as the variables can not be controlled, were as laboratory experiments can be redone as many times as it’s needed. Durkheim argued that social facts, customs, beliefs systems and social institutions should be considered things. Durkheim also claimed to have discovered cause and effect relationships between social facts. Durkheim also found correlations between suicide rates and social facts. Comte, who invented the term sociology, argued that sociology should be based on the methodology of the natural sciences. This would result in a positive science of society, which would reveal the invariable laws.
