Sociology and Science

 In the early 19^th  the french mathematician, August Comte (1798-1857) impressed by the achievements being made natural sciences such as physics, chemistry, and geology, argued that three were discernible stages in the evolution of human thought. There are:

1.      The first stage

Which he called ‘theological’ or ‘fictitious’ stage, explained event as God’s work, for example thunder occurring when God is angry, or famines being the result of not worshipping him enough. 

2.      The second stage

Characteristic of the middle ages with explanation involving subtle emissions from the divine and mystic influences, called the ‘metaphysical’ stage.

3.      The third stage 

Based on evidences of the previous two hundred years which appeared to demonstrate that the natural world is subject to the rule of definite laws that can be observed through experiment and this collection of ‘positive facts’. 

Positivist and structural sociology    

Positivist sociology is similar to the concept of Empricism. It mainly interested pursuing a research programme that is parallel to that of the natural sciences, seeking to discover patterned and regular events in the social world whose occurence is either  caused by  another event, or strongly correlated with that event.

Webber wrestled with the problem of determinism, suggesting instead that human have some control over their lives. Although a ‘positivist‘ sociology clearly now, scepticism exist both inside and outside sociology as to how successful and valid it is.

Social science to predict of the natural sciences. Aside from the ethical problems of placing people in artificial situations, it only makes sense to study people’s behaviour in an existing social setting.

With these limitation, social scientists have far greater difficulty in establishing the cause or causes of events. At best, all that can be established are strong correlation.

Scientific in that sociology constitutes a body of organised knowledge developed through systematic enquiry, using techniques that approximate to those of natural science, yielding data of similar reliability and validity.    

The hypothetico-deductive method

               

Good science is based on the hypothetico-deductive method. This method contains several stages which are:

a.       Observation: scientific activitiy depends on systematic defenition, recording and description of its subject matter.

 Conjecture:  to explain the observation, scientist must think for a reason of the incident.

b.      Hypothesis Formation: the conjection must be put in a form that will allow the scientist to determine how accurate it explains the incident in the observation. In other meaning, it is made to predict the result of a stage.

c.       Testing: The hypothesis must be tested in an experiment to prove wether is is right or not.

d.      Generalisation: if the test says that it is right, means that the conjecture explains the occurance of the observation. Either into a law-like statement or a probibalistic statement

e.       Theory Formation: A number of generalisations are ordered into a theory, which explains a range of phenomena.

A hypothetico-deductive method must not have any opinion of the researcher. Because it needs to be subjective.

The phenomenological approach

There is a difference between human and non living things. And by this people start to think for their own selves and have reasons for their behaviours. Sosiologists should be aware about this.

Scientists are involved in analyzing these phenomenon as an other group in a community.

All knowledge is a result of interaction between human to human. To create things we need to reprocess, this comes from few ideas that are considered already known. All knowledges are constructed in a social way. 

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