SOCIOLOGY AS A SCIENCE

 SOCIOLOGY AS A SCIENCE



In response to the problems that medieval Europe faced before to modernity, sociology developed as a distinct discipline. The goal of the first generation of sociologists was to build sociology along the lines of the scientific disciplines. Social Scientists began to dream of a discipline that might provide comparable universal rules of social organizations as a result of the scientific revolution in the fields of astronomy, medicine, physics, and biology. Even in his dreams, St. Simon had social physics. According to Auguste Comte, the pioneer of sociology, there are universal rules governing social order. The same underlying presumptions also drove Herbert Spencer's.  Organic analogy. Questions about the viability of applying fundamental concepts from natural sciences to sociology were raised as the discipline progressed. This sparked a discussion on the nature of sociology, whether it is a science or not.

 The origins of this debate may be found in the fundamental concept of the term "science." During the nineteenth century, science was mostly based on natural science. Only when a body of knowledge formulates UNIVERSAL LAWS and validates the notions of empiricism and inductivism it is termed science. As a result of this intellectual progress, the notion of science evolved. Science gradually came to be seen as a process of inquiry rather than a collection of knowledge. Any systematic study based on evidence and reason has been characterized as science. It assumes that explanations must be scientific if they are provided in a logical, scientific, or reasoned way.

 Some scientific conditions were established.

1 Intersubjectivity: this term refers to the idea that notions framed by any body of knowledge should have the same meaning for various persons. That is, the notions must be carefully specified.

2 Objectivity: There should be the ability to do research without personal prejudices or assumptions.

3 Quantifiability: Things should be observable in a quantitative way. That is, the subject's scope should be clearly specified.

4 Theoretical orientation: The body of knowledge must be theoretically competent. Science cannot be defined as a mere collection of facts. There must be room for generalization.

5 Testing

ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR

  • Sociology is regarded as a scientific discipline based on the following grounds.
  • The notions framed by sociology have a high degree of intersubjective reliability. For example, family, marriage, and religion are all carefully defined and have the same meaning for everybody.
  • Social phenomena or occurrences can be absorbed in a concrete way through adequate description utilizing case studies. Various social phenomena, such as social institutions, organizations, and so on, may be precisely measured.
  •  Emile Durkheim Social facts are observable and measurable (quantifiable) 
  • Although total objectivity is not possible, sociology has maintained objectivity by employing scientific methods and thorough training of social experiments.
  • Sociology has developed theories that may be applied to a wide range of situations. Although there is considerable doubt about the effectiveness of Universal ideas, the domain of sociology is capable of producing such hypotheses. For example, Marx's idea of HISTORICAL MATERIALISM.
  • Durkheim’s theory of DIVISION OF LABOR
  • Parson’s theory of SOCIAL SYSTEM
  • Weber’s theory of CAPITALISM etc are widely applicable
  • Sociology uses methods and whole society is a testing ground for sociologists. Thus sociology witness a large number of similar situations in which the theories can be tested

LIMITATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY AS A SCIENCE

·     In terms of sociology being similar to natural science there may be number of limitation like

limit of empirical testability

lack of universal theories

·         Absolute objectivity as described in science is not possible in sociology. At times there are obvious limitations on experimentation in sociology.

·         Apart from the sociological investigation sometimes it generates controversies related to vagueness in concepts, variations in social phenomena, unpredictable nature of human being

In this context it is considered that Sociology is not a science similar to natural science but it is a science in itself.

Difference in the nature of sociology is drawn from its basic subject matter the ultimate reducible element of which is an individual

According to Max Weber “Natural sciences study matter which is not having any consciousness and the behaviour can be predicted in terms of cause and effect. on the other hand sociology studies human beings, the behaviour of which can’t be predicted and thus exact laws are not possible”. According to him sociology is a scientific discipline as it can study subject by using scientific methodology.

According to Karl Popper “Science is not a body of knowledge but method of studying a phenomena”

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