Debates - Is Sociology A Science

Question 1

What is positivist view on sociology as a science

Answer 1

• believed it can be a science by modelling itself on the natural sciences
• using quantitive methods it can study identifiable patterns and reveal their causes and effects

Question 2

What is interpretivists view upon sociology as a science

Answer 2

• argue cannot be scientific
• people don’t react in a predictable way to stimuli, in the same way that, for example chemicals respond to being mixed
• people interpret identical situations differently
• impossible to study social action the same way we study the physical world

Question 3

What is realist view on sociology as a science

Answer 3

• realists seek to broaden our definition of what science is and argue that sociology is a science
• does not view science itself as simply being a process of studying observable phenomena
• argues science frequenlty deals with objects that cannot be observed eg study of the interior of black holes
• argues there are two types of science one deals with closed systems ( easier to control conditions of experiments, allowing for greater predictability ) and open systems ( more difficult to control, outcomes are harder to predict )

Question 4

What does popper say

Answer 4

• not a science
• for sociology to be a science it must undergo a process of falsification
• in order to do this, the theory must use an inductive method and then be challenged by by a deductive method to prove it wrong
• therefore sociology cannot be a science as it cannot undergo falsification, due to how many sociological ideas are too abstract to be tested
• broken up into ideological camps such as Marxism which constantly sought to highlight proof of its own world view and had ideas which were impossible to properly falsify ( eg ‘the proletariat will rebel’ sets no timeline and so can never be disproven and as it always may happen )
• post modernist

Question 5

What did Kuhn say

Answer 5

• could be but isn’t a science
• in order to be a science, a discipline had to have a set of universal rules under which everyone operated and by which results could be measured so there could be a cross verification of ideas.
• this set of rules was called a “ paradigm “
• Kuhn argued that sociology has the potential to be a science but was in the pre-paradigmatic stage as it had not yet discovered the underlying “ rules “ which governed all social action

Question 6

What do keat and urry say

Answer 6

• sociology is scientific ( deals with open systems )
• realists
  -argued we need to reexamine the way we look at science
• argued there were two types of science, closed systems - easier to control and allow for precise prediction, open systems - difficult/ impossible to control and therefore prediction is very difficult

Question 7

What did sayer say

Answer 7

• sociology is scientific
  Essentially the same as keat and urry
• talks about open and closed systems
• realist

Question 8

What does bhasker say

Answer 8

• sociology is a science
• Realist
  Similar views to keat and urry
• argues that science does not only concern itself with the observable, therefore sociology can be considered scientific

Question 9

What does Weber say

Answer 9

• can be but should not be a science
• uses interpretivism to study sociology from a subjective perspective
• draws on the ideas of verstehen which means sociology requires a subjective understanding which relates to opinions
• sociology is strongly objective and could not be considered a science, nor want to be a science