Is sociology a science? Flashcards
(24 cards)
What is a science ?
According to the science council
It is a pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world.
Methods are based on evidence.
What are the 5 components of a science?
Empirical
Testable
Theoretical
Cumulative
Objective
Explain Empirical
Findings based on observations and experience.
(Sociologists often observe participants to get a greater understanding).
(Sociologists often collect data to get a greater understanding)
(They use scientific methods to study human social behaviour).
Explain Testable
Scientific experiments can be repeated and retested.
(Test-retest)
This is why scientific knowledge is seen as more reliable.
Explain theoretical
Can look at causal relationships
(Cause-and-effect)
Dont rely on describing but explaining.
Explain Cumulative
Building on previous knowledge.
Moves forward our understanding of the world.
Explain objective
Personal feelings/prejudices have no place in science.
It has to be unbiased.
Argument 1 - Positivists
What do they argue?
What can we do through verificationism?
How can we verify it?
How can patterns that we find be explained?
What does analysis of quantitative data allow?
Sociology can and should be considered a science.
Through verificationism we can develop a theory that helps explain a social phenomenon.
We can verify this through future observations.
Patterns that we find can be explained using social facts. (Educational failure is caused by material deprivation).
Analysis of quantitative data allows positivists to look at the cause and effect relationship that determine our behaviours.
What is verificationism?
A statement is meaningful only if it can be empirically verified.
(Analytically verified also) (More philosophy so not sure if need to include the analytical bit)
What steps make sociology a science?
- Society is patterned and these can be observed.
- Patterns can be used to create social facts.
- Social facts can be verified using inductive logic (Observations)
4.From this you can collect data and then form a conclusion. (Results can then be published).
What is integration?
What is Regulation?
Integration - Group membership (Religion - family)
Promotes social solidarity - value consensus
Regulation - Laws made by authority -the extent to which society controls and directs individual actions and desires.
(Regulation is a crucial aspect to integration as it enforces norms/values/rules in society).
Give an example of sociology being a science
Durkheim used official statistics to reveal patterns in suicide.
Egoistic suicide - To little integration
Altruistic suicide - To much integration
Fatalistic suicide - To much Regulation
Anomic suicide - To little regulation
Argument 2 - Interpretivists
1. What do they argue?
2. What does sociology study?
3.What do they say about research?
Sociology cannot and shouldn’t be considered a science.
Sociology studies people who have a consciousness.
Research cannot be objective - We need to immerse ourselves in the world of those researched to establish empathetic understanding.
(Verstehen - Weber)
What are the steps that make sociology not a science ?
People are conscious beings - Ethics
Sociology is about meanings which cannot be observed - Qualitative methods.
Causality is impossible to determine - Too many extraneous variables. (External influences)
(External influences - findings should not be universalised as people all have different unique experiences).
Examples of external influences
Primary socialisation
Subcultures - Age - gender - ethnicity - class
Give an example of sociology not being a science
Atkinson and suicide.
The only way we can study suicide is the way which the living make sense of it.
Members of society have a ‘taken for granted’ set of assumptions that we use to make sense of situations.
The role of sociologists is to discover this (taken-for-granted knowledge) to improve our overall understanding of events.
What is a criticism of Durkheim’s study in suicide ?
Statistics are a social construct.
Durkheim did his research in 1880’s.
Those who stayed within a religious (Catholics) if they had committed suicide they would have been ‘condemned to hell’.
(Interpretivists have studied/researched the creation of these stats - increasing the validity and building new explanations on it previous ones).
Argument 3 - Falsification
What does it argue?
What is falsification?
What does Popper say?
What does Kuhn say?
What is a counter to this?
Sociology (could) be considered a science
Falsification = a theory is only true if it can be proven true or false.
(Popper) - Too much of sociology is unscientific it cant be disproved.
(Marxist idea of w/c revolution - it has not happened yet)
Science only works if there is a dominant perspective and if that can be challenged - Kuhn argues that sociology cannot get past pre-science as it is not a dominant perspective.
However - Sociology has more untested ideas because it has had less time to do so.
(Was only established in (late 18th - early 19th century)
What is Poppers - Swan analogy?
(All swans are white)
Arriving at a conclusion just because of an observation isn’t always correct.
We can never prove a theory to be true simply by producing observations to confirm it.
(We could verify the idea that all swans are white by findings more white swans).
(However if we found one black swan the theory would be broken).
(Proving the theory wrong will get us closer to the truth).
Argument 4 - Paradigms - Kuhn
What does Kuhn argue?
What is a Paradigm?
What does normal/natural science operate within?
What is the difference between the scientific paradigm and sociological perspectives?
Give an example and say why sociology cannot be scientific
Kuhn - Counter?
Also argues sociology could be a science
Paradigm = An accepted framework of concepts and procedures (a dominant mode of scientific thought)
Normal science operates within a Paradigm.
The scientific Paradigm is rarely questioned - perspectives in sociology often have competition between them.
Example - Accepting ideas of Gravity as fact.
Sociology does not have a shared Paradigm and therefore cannot be scientific.
However Kuhn argued that it could be with time. (Sociology is an new concept)
Give an example of sociology coming together with time.
Giddens - Structuration theory
Conflict and consensus theories are still in competition.
But
Structural and social action theories are starting to come together.
Argument 5 - Realism - Keat and Urry
- what do they argue ?
- Why could it be considered as a science?
- What is the difference between open and closed systems.
- Why can sociology fit into the realist view of science.
(Give an example)
Sociology could be considered a science but it depends on your definitions of science.
There is similarity between sociology and certain types of natural science.
Distinguish between open/closed systems.
Closed = Variables can be controlled and precise measurements can be taken. (Lab experiments)
Open = Not all variables can be controlled (example cannot accurately predict when earthquake may happen).
Sociology can fit into the realist view of science.
(It uncovers underlying structures and processes)
(We can’t see social class but we can see the effects of it).
Is sociology a science?
What does a closed system perspective say?
What does an Open system perspective say?
Closed system definition
All variables are controlled so sociology is not a science.
Open system definition
Accepts not all variables can be controlled so sociology is a science.
Summary
Can sociology be considered a science?
Positivists - Yes (Durkheim - Suicide)
Interpretivist - No (Atkinson - suicide)
Falsification - Yes and no (once proven/disproven it could) (Popper)
Paradigm - Yes and no (With time it could) (Kuhn)
Realism - Yes and no - depends on your definition of science. (Open/closed)
