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Evaluate the view that sociology cannot and should not be considered a science (20 marks)

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Evaluate the view that sociology cannot and should not be considered a science (20 marks)

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Sociology cannot be a science-
Ethnomethodolgy: Garfinkel, looked at indexicality and reflexivity and how society uses common-sense knowledge to prevent indexicality occurring.
Phenomenology: Schutz, we use shared-typifications in order to create social order.
The social world is constructed actively everyday and the only way we can research this is through subjective knowledge gained through qualitative methods.
EVAL: Positivists would criticise the use of inaccurate methods

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Paradigm- Unified set of assumptions, this does not exist in sociology as there are many different assumptions concerning social phenomena. No shared paradigm in sociology, therefore it cannot be considered a science.
EVAL: Sociology could be considered to have lots of separate paradigms.

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It is desirable to apply the logic of the natural science to sociology, doing so will bring objective knowledge which will provide a basis for solving social problems. "Le Suicide" used official statistics to establish social facts, can aid with predictions of the world around us.
EVAL: Official statistics based on Coroner's decisions

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Highly desirable that science should be scientific, but social theories do not generate precise hypothesis that can be falsified. e.g. Marxism cannot be proven wrong until the revolution occurs, but due to false consciousness and hegemony it has not occurred. Sociology= Unfalsifiable
EVAL: Approach is realistic, a discipline will be stronger because we are constantly trying to disprove it, the more evidence we cannot find strengthens the original claim

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Accepts there are basic differences between the social and natural worlds and they maintain a social science is possible. Difference in natural science is the degree of control the researcher has over the variable.
Closed system: Natural law present, claims to possess a monopoly of truth
Open system: Free expression and the right to challenge expected change.
Keat and Urry: Both natural science and sociology use open systems.

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E: Garfinkel was interested in discovering how individuals make sense of the social world and how they create social order.
P: The world only makes sense because we impose meaning and order on it by constructing mental categories

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Interactions are based on meanings we give to situations. Mead found human behaviour is not shaped, fixed or pre-programmed, we respond to the world by giving meanings to things that are significant to us.

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Reject the Positivist view that science only wants to research observable patterns.  Interpretivists are also wrong to assume society cannot be studied as a science. Science and sociology both use open systems

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While accepting their are basic differences between the social and natural worlds, realists maintain a social science is possible. Events in both the social and natural world are produced by underlying structures and mechanisms, the difference lies in terms of the degree of control the researcher has over the variable.

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A paradigm is shared by embers of a scientific community and provides a basic framework of assumptions, principles and methods. For Kuhn, science cannot exist without a shared paradigm and normal science carries out a shared paradigm.
Scientists sometimes find anomalies in their research, as these anomalies grow people lose faith in the paradigm. Scientists begin to develop rival paradigms and to move from one to another requires a massive shift. One paradigm is accepted by the scientific community allowing normal science to resume.
For Popper, the scientific community is open, critical and rational, but for Kuhn the scientific community is not open and most of the time, fairly conformist.

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Believes in free expression and the right to challenge expected ideas

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An official system that claims to have an absolute truth

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Comte and Durkheim argue that it is desirable to apply the logic of the natural sciences to the study of sociology. Doing so will bring objective knowledge which will provide a basis for solving social problems.
There are patterns and laws that can be discovered- known as induction or inductive reasoning. Involves accumulating data through careful observation and measurement

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Place great emphasis on the effects of external and constraining social facts on individual behaviour. The subject matter of sociology is meaningful social action and true understanding only comes form the interpretation of the meanings and motives of those involved.
Sociology studies people who have consciousness and make sense of their constructed world by attaching meanings to it.

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Saw it as highly desirable that Sociology should be Scientific, but he argued that science is deductive rather than inductive methodology. Popper rejects many sociological theories as being unscientific as they did not generate precise hypothesis that could be falsified.

Sociology can be scientific because it is capable of producing hypotheses that can, in principle, be falsified.