Is sociology a science- Positivism
- Created by: ecotts
- Created on: 21-03-18 09:55
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- Is sociology a science ?
- Science is...
- Empirical
- Knowledge/ information that has to of happened, to be seen
- Controlled experiments
- Research and experiments must take place
- Objective
- Conclusion have to be based on evidence rather than own opinions
- Cumulative Progression
- The accumulation of knowledge/ info
- Empirical
- Positivism
- YES IT IS A SCIENCE
- Comte
- During the enlightenment Era he believed that 'Philosophingis not enough
- He said we must seek out cause & effects
- Nature is made up of observable, objective, physical facts which exist regardless of the individual
- Rocks, plants, cells
- Society is also made up of objective facts regardless of the individual
- Its made up of observable, measurable 'things'
- Like divorce rates
- Its made up of observable, measurable 'things'
- Sociology helps to discover laws that control and shape societies behaviour
- Through the INDUCTIVE METHOD
- Positivist accumilate societies data enabling them to move from facts to conclusions
- They can then test the conclusions to discover laws of human behaviour leading to policies
- Through the INDUCTIVE METHOD
- During the enlightenment Era he believed that 'Philosophingis not enough
- Durkheim
- he agrees that Society is made up of 'Social Facts'
- Like Social Class and religion
- These social facts are then able to be observed and measured
- which they then have been found to have causes and effects on society and individuals
- He used Mayhew and Rowtree idea of casual relationships between social facts like income and education
- in order to understand society
- With his study of suiside rates he found they were higher among protestants compared to catholics
- It showed that it was not the impact of individual motives but social facts
- Catholics integrate individuals better
- We can DEDUCT logic to theories to establish patterns of behaviour
- he agrees that Society is made up of 'Social Facts'
- Popper
- MAYBE IT IS A SCIENCE
- If sociology is to be considered a 'science' it must subject it itself to the falsification method
- It must test itself by coming up with testable hypotheses
- If there is no falsification that the truer it is
- He rejects Marxism as it generates ideas like false consciousness
- He says this can not be falsified as it is too abstract
- HOWEVER...
- Sociology can not be a science as it studies different societies and people who are unpredictable
- Sociological research is built on biased and full of values
- Science is...
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