Sociology and Science

Sociology and Science

1. Karl Popper

   • Argues that science should use the hypothetico-deductive method. This involves drawing up a hypothesis based on previous research and hunches to test throughout research
   • Scientific method involves hypothesis formation, falsification, empirical evidence, replication, prediction, theory formation and scrutiny from others
   • Popper uses example of the white swan to argue that we can never comprehensively prove true scientific statements but can only falsify them
   • The more a hypothesis resists falsification, the more likely it is to be a scientific truth
   • Suggests that much of sociological theory is not scientific because it cannot be falsified and will only become scientific once it produces falsifiable hypotheses

2. Positivism

   • Claims that methods of the natural sciences can be applied to society because human behaviour is a response to external forces just as objects are
   • Comte: sociology based on the natural sciences will produce a 'positive science of society', showing that human behaviour is governed by the laws of cause and effect
   • Marx: argued that his theory was based on cause-and-effect theories established by the scientific method
   • Durkheim: argued that we should 'consider social facts as things'. These facts are like objective things that can be measured quantitatively. They can act on and constrain behaviour
   • An example of a social fact is class, which shapes behaviour. Society has a reality external to individuals
   • Quantitative data is preferred because it subjective feelings cannot be measured and otherwise sociology will remain at the level of insight
   • Sociology should seek to uncover causes of events and on the structures of society, not the individual

3. Interpretivism

   • G. H. Mead: people do not simply respond blindly but interpret and give meaning to a situation before responding
   • Impossible to predict human behaviour or establish cause-and-effect relationships. In order to explain society we need knowledge of meanings
   • This insight can be achieved through Verstehen, understanding meaning through empathy
   • Meanings do not exist independently of humans. Something only becomes a murder, a suicide or manslaughter because people define it that way. There are no laws of human society, no possibility of prediction and no facts

4. Realism

   • Bhaskar
     • Suggests that not all phenomena are material objects or observable social facts, but that there can be unobservable structures that cause events
     • Positivist view is based on an incorrect assumption that what matters is what is observable. Many great scientific discoveries have been inferred, not observed (sub-atomic particles and germs)
     • Sociology is similar. We can't observe structures like class and belief systems, but we can observe their effects
   • Sayer
     • Prediction is often not as precise in natural science as Popper claims. Natural science has an advantage when studying closed systems like the laboratory
     • Some science and sociology take place in open systems where variables are much more difficult to control and predictions become less precise. For instance, weather forecasting and seismology
     • Interpretivists suggest we shouldn't attempt to copy science because human behaviour is unpredictable and meanings are unobservable, though this mistakes what science is
     • Researching the natural world and the social world therefore have a lot in common

5. Postmodernism

   • Science is just another metanarrative claiming a monopoly on truth along with Marxism and functionalism. There is a loss of faith in modernism and the ability of science to improve the world
   • 'Scientific' research is just a social construction by sociologists. Concepts like class and gender are just constructs imposed on the world with no meaning separate from interpretations
   • It is impossible to predict human behaviour because society is chaotic. It is just a mass of individuals making choices about their lifestyles
   • Claims of objectivity are a pretence of justifying some views as 'superior' . All views are in fact equally valid

6. Social constuction

   • Kuhn: science operates within a paradigm, a framework of methods and assumptions about research and evidence. It is a pair of lenses through which scientists study problems
   • Scientists rarely question the paradigm but try to fit their findings into it. Science only progresses by major revolutions
   • Kaplan (1973): distinguishes between reconstructed logic (the proper and former method scientists use) and logic in use (the method actually used)
   • Most scientists depart from formal procedures and research is haphazzard, ad hoc and unsystematic
   • In 1998, editor of the British Medical Journal found only 5% of published articles reached minimum standards of scientific standards
   • Multiple social influences on research, like funding, career prospects, publishers' deadlines, availability of data, practicality, etc.