theory and methods - revision notes on is sociology a science

1. IS
SOCIOLOGY
A SCIENCE?
MILLIE PRICE – SOCIOLOGY REVISION

2. IS SOCIOLOGY A SCIENCE?
– DIFFERENT VIEWS
 Marx, Durkheim and Comte are POSITIVISTS and
believe that sociology IS A SCIENCE. They use
quantitative data such as official statistics
 Weber and Popper believe that sociology ISN’T A
SCIENCE and doesn’t need to be. They are
INTERPRETISITS.

3. COMTE
• Comte (1798-1857) was one of these founding fathers, coined
the term 'sociology' and described himself as a 'POSITIVIST'.
• Comte looked at SOCIAL FACTS and said we can
change/shape peoples behavior through discovering the laws
• Comte said that science isn't there to tell us why something
came into being
• But that the main task of sociology is to discover general laws
of social development

4. DURKHEIM
• Although Durkheim believes sociology IS a science, he
thought that Comte had failed to establish sociology as a
science
• Durkheim thought instead that sociology should study SOCIAL
FACTS as things to observe and measure e.g. suicide rate
• He said that sociologists should use objective methods like
experiments, questionnaires and statistics as these are
mathematical precise and not based on thoughts and feelings

5. POPPER
• Karl Popper disagrees with Durkheim and believes sociology
ISN’T a science
• He says that no theory can ever be 100% true
• Science works by falsification meaning a theory can only be
scientific if it can be proved to be FALSE OR TRUE.
• Popper thought that all academic subject areas that wanted to
be called a ‘science’ should subject themselves to a process of
FALSIFICATION
• If it cant be proven or disproven it isn’t scientific
• Popper says sociology isn’t a science because theories like
Marxism and false class consciousness are falsifiable.

6. WEBER
• Weber agrees with Popper and says that sociology ISN’T a
science
• Weber says sociology should study society from the
prospective of other people to understand HOW AND WHY
things happen
• Using Webers perspective requires subjective understanding
which draws on peoples opinions
• Science is strongly objective and does not allow opinion to
influence research

7. KUHN
• Kuhn says sociology is and ISN'T a science
• Because there is no shared assumptions and principles.
• Functionalism, Marxism and feminism all have DIFFERING
IDEAS
• If these could be resolved to create one PARADIGM then
sociology could be a science but is unlikely