SatyamAIR 218 · CSE 2016 · 452 wordsTheir whole copy
Opening · a definition
Sociology, as a child of European modernity, was founded as a separate discipline by the likes of Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer. Comte believed that sociology should develop 'universal laws of human behaviour' emerging as the 'queen of all sciences'. His follower, Durkheim, also believed that Sociology should restrict itself to studying social facts objectively. The 'scientific study of society' is exemplified by Durkheim's study of 'Suicide' which had the following features-
Body · points and prose
(a) Need to collect statistical data (b) Need to establish correlations (c) Need to do a multivariate analysis (d) Need to create universally acceptable laws through generalization (e) Need to give functional causal explanations of the generalization.
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All these steps when followed would lead to objective and value-neutral study of social reality, which itself is objective.
Such an approach tried taking an infant Sociology closer to science because scientific orientation was much valued in those days.
However, such an approach needs to be analyzed part by part to understand its short-comings.
First, the very idea that social reality is 'objective' (Durkheim said: 'Treat Social facts as 'things') is under question. Social action theorists believe that reality is subjective and actively created and modified by individuals. In fact, often social reality, say someone's religious values, may be difficult to define objectively. A person
may not regularly attend church but may be espouse strong religious values at an individual level.
Second, scientific study is based on collection and analysis of statistical data. However, this data, as Douglas mentions, is also often value-driven. For example, in India there could be under-reporting of 'Suicides' to the Police because of the social stigma attached to suicides.
Third, Alan Bryman challenges the virtue of correlation establishment saying that often such correlations may not be valid (lack of internal validity). This becomes specially important when in order to prove his idea, forced correlations are attempted at by the researcher.
Fourth, as Karl Popper points out, real
Science doesn't attempt at generalizations. Rather, there should be creation of hypothesis which should be subjected to 'falsification' in the light of new data.
Fifth, 'universal laws of human behaviour' aren't possible because as Max Weber points out, human's social world is very complex, chaotic and dichotomous. The best a sociologist can do is to study a part of social reality.
Sixth, in creation of these universal or 'grand' laws, there are high chances that the values of the researcher would creep in. So, value neutrality is a myth. Therefore, Gouldner points out that it is best to openly declare the values.
Lastly, the various quantitative tools employed to study social reality in a scientific manner may not be valid enough because of lack of ecological measurement and ecological validity too.