Sociology and science essay plan Introduction Sociologists are

Sociology and science essay plan

Introduction • Sociologists are divided on whether sociology can/should be a science • While positivists believe sociology should be as they base their methods on natural sciences, interpretivists believe sociology shouldn’t be a science as society shouldn’t be studied like science as the subject matters are fundamentally different

Positivists: believe sociology should/can be a science • Sociology can be objective through verificationalism and inductive reason like science uses • Positive methods always aim to be scientific- detached methods eg non participant observation – prevents values from contaminating research • Durkheim: suicide is a social fact caused by the independent variables of regulation and integration. Discovered a pattern: Italy had constant low levels of suicide as catholic were tightly integrated into shared rituals • Sociology should be a science as it can be objective and verified • Ao 3: popper: falsification instead of varification • Ao 3: interpretivist: hawthorne effect

Interpretivists: believe that sociology shouldn’t be/ cant be a science • Subject matter not suitable for scientific study: can only understand through successfully interpreting meanings/motives • To understand actors meanings we need to put ourselves in their place to grasp meaning – weber – verstehen – empathetic understanding • Internal consciousness governs action we do not react to external forces. Science looks at matter that’s unconscious – water boils at 100 whereas sociology studies meanings, motivations and actions of individuals which involves consciousness science cannot study validity • Attkinson (phenomenologist) argues that social reality is a construct by its member; coroners classify suicides with common sense and understanding of the world. Analyse and come to a decision. No rate exists, it is constructed by coroners

Popper: sociology cant be a science • As science needs to be falsifiable and has to have the highest elements of objectivity- sociology doesn’t fulfil either • Falsificationalism: try to prove a theory wrong • Marxism: believe that there will be a proletariat revolution leading to a classless society but that it has not yet happened because of fcc thus this theory cant be proved wrong • As sociology cannot be proved wrong sometimes assume its studies are not objective- cant be a science as it cannot be objective – falls into the fallacy of induction- finding evidence to support rather than disprove a theory

Kuhn: shouldn’t be a science but there's a small possibility is can be • Sociology isn’t a science as science is defined by having paradigms that all scientists work under, sociology has many conflicting theories thus the only way for sociology to become scientific is to become one theory. Its possibility is up to debate • Paradigm: set of values, beliefs and assumptions within which scientists operate. All scientists work under this and research is funded if it best fits into the paradigm • Kuhn thinks sociology is in a pre paradigm state where there is no one paradigm and until the conflicts between theories are sorted out or one proved wrong then there will be no paradigm therefore sociology cant be a science • Ao 3: However, postmodernists argue that a scientific paradigm is just another metanarrative that brings nothing new to society and cannot help to improve it because it is of no more value than any other perspectives

The realists • A 03 to both interpretivists and positivists: Positivists who favour researching only observable phenomena are wrong as keat and urry say we can study the interior of a black hole through physics without observing it • In the same way just because society is a construction of minds like the interpretivists believe it doesn’t mean we cant study it • For example, Marxism studied the structure of capitalism and its effects (poverty) – similar to research of science (underlying structures)

Conclusion • Could be argued the main reason whether or not sociology can/should be a science is what perspective is taken and the matter being studied • Eg if one theory believes that society is governed by external forces that individuals react to them it could be possible for sociology to be a science if it maintained falsifiability and objectivity • Eg interpretivists -> society is a creation of shared meanings and has no objective reality- may not be possible to study society objectively as it is not an objective matter to them