Topic 3- Sociology and science
Sociologists What do they say? Evaluation
Durkheim . Sociologists can discover laws that determine how society . Popper- use of conductive
works reasoning
Positivist . Can be done using inductive reasoning
. Social facts . Interpretivists- individuals
. He chose to study suicide to show that sociology was a aren’t manipulated by
science with its own distinct subject external social facts as
. He used quantitative data from official statistics and positivists believe, but
observed that there were patterns in the suicide rate E.x independent beings who
Rates for protestants were higher than for Catholics construct their social world
. Those patterns are social facts through the meanings they
. The social facts responsible for the determining the give to it
suicide rate were the levels of integration and regulation E.x . The job of the sociologist is
Catholics were less likely to commit suicide than to uncover these meanings
Protestantsbecause Catholicism was more successful in
integrating individuals . Douglas and his view of
. He concluded that social facts could be explained suicide
scientifically
Weber . Proposed the concept of Verstehen
. Using Verstehen to uncover meanings of actors
Interpretivist
Douglas . Rejects the positivists view that social facts determine . Durkheim’s view on suicide
people’s behaviour
. Individuals have free will and choose how to act based on
the basis of meanings
. So to understand suicide, we must uncover meanings for
those involved, instead of imposing our own meanings onto
the situation
Atkinson . Agrees with Douglas’ view on suicide and how official
statistics are socially constructed
. However, he argues that we can never know the ‘’real
Ethnomethodolo state’’ of suicide, even when using qualitative methods,
gist since we can never know for sure what meanings the
deceased held
, Popper . Principle of falsification
. There isn’t an absolute proof that any knowledge is true
. Argued that positivist sociologists were not really scientific
in their approach to research because, instead of using
deductive reasoning they used inductive reasoning
. Argues sociology can be both scientific and unscientific
Khun . Scientific paradigms
. A paradigm provides a basic framework of assumptions,
principles, methods and techniques within which members
of the science community work
. It tells scientists how to think and behave
. Their conformity to paradigms are rewarded with
publication of their research and career success
. However non-conformity may mean that their work goes
unpublished and may even lead to dismissal
. In his view science can’t exist without a shared paradigm
. However, currently sociology is pre-paradigmatic and Postmodernists- also agree
pre-scientific that paradigm would also not
. There is no agreement on what to study, what method to be desirable in sociology
use, what we should expect to find and so on since it sound like a
. Therefore, in his view sociology can only become a ‘’meta-narrative’’ - a
science if such disagreements were resolved dominating view of what
reality is like
Keat and Urry . Distinguish between open systems and closed systems
. Closed systems- where the researchers can control and
measure all relevant variables and so can make precise
Realists predictions
. Open system- where the researcher can’t control and
measure all variables and so can’t make precise predictions
. Argue most sociology is scientific
Sociologists What do they say? Evaluation
Durkheim . Sociologists can discover laws that determine how society . Popper- use of conductive
works reasoning
Positivist . Can be done using inductive reasoning
. Social facts . Interpretivists- individuals
. He chose to study suicide to show that sociology was a aren’t manipulated by
science with its own distinct subject external social facts as
. He used quantitative data from official statistics and positivists believe, but
observed that there were patterns in the suicide rate E.x independent beings who
Rates for protestants were higher than for Catholics construct their social world
. Those patterns are social facts through the meanings they
. The social facts responsible for the determining the give to it
suicide rate were the levels of integration and regulation E.x . The job of the sociologist is
Catholics were less likely to commit suicide than to uncover these meanings
Protestantsbecause Catholicism was more successful in
integrating individuals . Douglas and his view of
. He concluded that social facts could be explained suicide
scientifically
Weber . Proposed the concept of Verstehen
. Using Verstehen to uncover meanings of actors
Interpretivist
Douglas . Rejects the positivists view that social facts determine . Durkheim’s view on suicide
people’s behaviour
. Individuals have free will and choose how to act based on
the basis of meanings
. So to understand suicide, we must uncover meanings for
those involved, instead of imposing our own meanings onto
the situation
Atkinson . Agrees with Douglas’ view on suicide and how official
statistics are socially constructed
. However, he argues that we can never know the ‘’real
Ethnomethodolo state’’ of suicide, even when using qualitative methods,
gist since we can never know for sure what meanings the
deceased held
, Popper . Principle of falsification
. There isn’t an absolute proof that any knowledge is true
. Argued that positivist sociologists were not really scientific
in their approach to research because, instead of using
deductive reasoning they used inductive reasoning
. Argues sociology can be both scientific and unscientific
Khun . Scientific paradigms
. A paradigm provides a basic framework of assumptions,
principles, methods and techniques within which members
of the science community work
. It tells scientists how to think and behave
. Their conformity to paradigms are rewarded with
publication of their research and career success
. However non-conformity may mean that their work goes
unpublished and may even lead to dismissal
. In his view science can’t exist without a shared paradigm
. However, currently sociology is pre-paradigmatic and Postmodernists- also agree
pre-scientific that paradigm would also not
. There is no agreement on what to study, what method to be desirable in sociology
use, what we should expect to find and so on since it sound like a
. Therefore, in his view sociology can only become a ‘’meta-narrative’’ - a
science if such disagreements were resolved dominating view of what
reality is like
Keat and Urry . Distinguish between open systems and closed systems
. Closed systems- where the researchers can control and
measure all relevant variables and so can make precise
Realists predictions
. Open system- where the researcher can’t control and
measure all variables and so can’t make precise predictions
. Argue most sociology is scientific
