Flashcards
SOCIOLOGY A SCIENCE?
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- 1WHAT IS SCIENCE?-science generally classed as objective free method of research, looks for validity and 'proof' to be sure something is true
- use empirical evidence to show something can be explained in certain way using certain methods
-science became main way of thinking during 17th/18th century modernist times usually referred to as 'Enlightenement'
- as science was enlightening minds of everyone to how everything works and exists - 2POSITIVISTS?- the founding fathers of sociology who were around in such times were positivists
- believed using research methods such as questionnaires, exp, interviews provided us w/ quantitative data to explain society scientifically like everything else was being
- e.g. Comte, Durkheim, Marx
- believed research could produce 'social laws' similar to scientific laws, e.g. poverty causes crime
- e.g. Durk --> official stats to help study of suicide - 3POPPER?- scientific = deductive methodology and falsification
- not scientific because they induce: use specific observations and generalise rather than the other way round
- also not open to be proven wrong
- science always moving forward and changing w/ time, + this cos he believes they abide by rule of falsification : open to being proved wrong by diff theory
- e.g. Marx
- covered from all sides - 4THOMAS KUHN?- sociology not scientific because a discipline is only scientific if it has a shared paradigm
- = a form of culture, set of shared beliefs including how to research, objectivity, value freedom etc.
- sociology has multiple paradigms within - 2 main research, and then within many diff ideologies + theories of society
- e.g. feminists believe society is patriarchal , marxists say capitalism
- until diff theories agree 1 way of research, explaining society, validity, then cannot be classed as science
- impossible basically - 5INTERPRETIVIST?- sociology shouldn't attempt to be science
- science only deals w/ cause and effect, not human meanings
- sociology should study people's social actions, which can be understood in terms of internal meanings used to make sense of world
- to understand, need to see world from their viewpoint and to do this must gain verstehen
- favour qualitative methods to do this
- don't be science or else can't focus on true meaning - 6REALIST?- all wrong about nature/definition of science
SAYER: 2 ways of undertaking scientific study:
- closed systems: can control + measure all variables e.g. lab exp
- open systems: can't ^^^ e.g. weather prediction
- sociologists study open systems
- science often assumes existence of unobservable structures e.g. cannot directly observe interior of black hole
- so, if believe in that, can believe in sociological facts as scientific too e.g. cannot directly observe socialisation, but can assume it's there given the 'evidence'
-sociology is scientific, just others have failed to define it accurately - 7POSTMODERNISTS?- science is metanarrative: its account of world no more valid than any other
- dangerous as claims monopoly on truth and excludes other points of view
- scientists given status and blindly trusted even though their ev no more valid than others, just researched in diff way
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- Flashcards on SOCIOLOGY A SCIENCE?, created by Maisie Carroll on 19/06/2017.
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- Maisie Carroll
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