Sociology and Science

Sociology and Science

1. 5 features of science

   • Empirical
   • Testable
   • Objective
   • Cumulative
   • Theoretical

2. Funding and Prestige

   • The two factors that have created the debate as to whether sociology is a science
   • Those that want sociology to be a science argue that it will become easier to get funding ans sociology will be seen as more prestigious

3. Comte

   • Founding father of positivism
   • Believed sociology should be based on the natural sciences
   • Everything should be seen as social facts and put into numerical form

4. Durkheim

   • Called institutions, beliefs and values social facts which can be predicted, measured and quantified

5. Popper

   • Argued science should be open to falsification - it should be willing to be proved wrong by the rest of the science world
   • Argues sociology should be open to falsification
     • E.g. Functionalism and Marxism have stood for centuries and have never changed their outlook or listened to criticism

6. Kuhn

   • Argues science does not always meed the criteria of science, in particular cumulative
   • Argues science is made up of paradigms (a set of ideas)
     • Anything outside the paradigm is ignored thus science does not cumulate knowledge
   • Science ignores knowledge outside the paradigm until too much knowledge outside the paradigm builds up

7. Postmodernism and science

   • Rorty argues there has been a 'decline in meta-narratives' which means neither sociology nor science can explain a postmodern world