Chapter 2

Sociology as Science

Major theoretical strands of

research methodology.
Positivism and its critique.
Fact value and objectivity.
Sociology is commonly described as one of the social sciences.
Science refers to a body of systematically arranged knowledge that shows the
operation of general laws.
Sociology also employs the same general methods of investigation that are
used in the natural sciences.
Like the natural scientists, sociologists use the scientific method, a process by
which a body of scientific knowledge is built through:
- Observation
- Experimentation
- Generalization and
- Verification.
The collection of data is an important aspect of the scientific method.
But facts alone do not constitute a science. To have any meaning, facts must
be ordered in some way, analyzed, generalized, and related to other facts.
This is known as theory construction.
Theories help organize and interpret facts and relate them to previous findings
of other researchers.
Unlike other means of inquiry, science generally limits its investigations to things
that can be observed directly or that produce directly observable events.
This is known as empiricism:
the view that generalizations are valid only if they rely on evidence that can
be observed directly or verified through our senses.
Positivism

We have already discussed it in bits and pieces in our previous lessons.

Let us have a look at what positivism means in a greater detail.

The word positivism is derived from the French word positivisme, in turn derived
from positif.
In its philosophical sense, it means 'imposed on the mind by experience'.

Positivism asserts that all authentic knowledge allows verification and that all
authentic knowledge assumes that the only valid knowledge is scientific.

We need to discuss it more to get greater clarity.

I’d want you all to listen to this story of August Comte.

Comte argued that, much as the physical world operates according to gravity
and other absolute laws, so does society, and further developed positivism into
a Religion of Humanity.

(quoting from Wikipedia. Just read it leisurely and find out what positivism is)
Auguste Comte (1798–1857) first described the epistemological perspective of
positivism in The Course in Positive Philosophy, a series of texts published between 1830
and 1842.

These texts were followed by the 1844 work, A General View of Positivism.

The first three volumes of the Course dealt chiefly with the physical sciences already
in existence (mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology), whereas the latter
two emphasized the inevitable coming of social science.

Observing the circular dependence of theory and observation in science, and

classifying the sciences in this way, Comte may be regarded as the first philosopher
of science in the modern sense of the term.

For him, the physical sciences had necessarily to arrive first, before humanity could
adequately channel its efforts into the most challenging and complex "Queen
science" of human society itself.

His View of Positivism therefore set out to define the empirical goals of sociological
method.

The most important thing to determine was the natural order in which the sciences
stand—not how they can be made to stand, but how they must stand, irrespective of
the wishes of any one.

This Comte accomplished by taking as the criterion of the position of each the degree
of what he called "positivity", which is simply the degree to which the phenomena can
be exactly determined.

This, as may be readily seen, is also a measure of their relative complexity, since the
exactness of a science is in inverse proportion to its complexity.

The degree of exactness or positivity is, moreover, that to which it can be subjected
to mathematical demonstration, and therefore mathematics, which is not itself a
concrete science, is the general gauge by which the position of every science is to
be determined.

Generalizing thus, Comte found that there were five great groups of phenomena of
equal classificatory value but of successively decreasing positivity.

To these he gave the names astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and sociology.

Comte offered an account of social evolution, proposing that society undergoes three
phases in its quest for the truth according to a general "law of three stages".

Comte intended to develop a secular-scientific ideology in the wake of European

secularisation.

Comte's stages were (TMP):

(1) the theological

(2) the metaphysical, and

(3) the positive.

The theological phase of man was based on whole-hearted belief in all things with
reference to God. God, Comte says, had reigned supreme over human existence pre-
Enlightenment. Humanity's place in society was governed by its association with the
divine presences and with the church.

The theological phase deals with humankind's accepting the doctrines of the church
(or place of worship) rather than relying on its rational powers to explore basic
questions about existence. It dealt with the restrictions put in place by the religious
organization at the time and the total acceptance of any "fact" adduced for society
to believe.

Comte describes the metaphysical phase of humanity as the time since the
Enlightenment, a time steeped in logical rationalism, to the time right after the French
Revolution.

This second phase states that the universal rights of HUMANITY are most important. The
central idea is that humanity is invested with certain rights that must be respected. In
this phase, democracies and dictators rose and fell in attempts to maintain the innate
rights of humanity.

The final stage of the trilogy of Comte's universal law is the scientific, or positive, stage.
The central idea of this phase is that individual rights are more important than the rule
of any one person. Comte stated that the idea of humanity's ability to govern itself
makes this stage inherently different from the rest.

There is no higher power governing the masses and the intrigue of any one person
can achieve anything based on that individual's free will.

Comte calls these three phases the universal rule in relation to society and its
development. Neither the second nor the third phase can be reached without the
completion and understanding of the preceding stage. All stages must be completed
in progress.
Positivism aims at understanding the world as cause and effect relations that
can be observed.

Verified data (positive facts) received from the senses are known as empirical
evidence; thus, positivism is based on empiricism.

Positivism also holds that society, like the physical world, operates according
to general laws. Introspective and intuitive knowledge is rejected.

It draws from –
- Empiricism (what is seen or observable)
- Inductivism (supremacy of facts)
- Naturalism (influence of external environment on actions)

John Locke was one of the first proponents of it.

He was both an empiricist and an inductivist.
He desired to understand or describe the world as a sequence of cause and
effects between objects that can be observed.

Positivism has had a great influence of enlightenment ideologies.

For example:
Saint Simon – Sociology as Social Physics.
Herbert Spencer - Advocated Organismic Analogy to study Society.
Auguste Comte introduced positivism in Sociology.
He, in his books ‘Course in Positive Philosophy’ and ‘System of Positive Polity’
aimed at Studying Sociology as a Natural Science.

He also emphasized Sociological Positivism-

Objects are real not by material presence but in terms of their effects also.

Sociology to be studied using methodologies like:

- Reductional Analysis
- Causal Analysis
- Comparative Analysis
- Generalisations.

Emile Durkheim – His bringing forth the concept of social facts further enriched
Positivism as applicable to Sociology.
He advocated recording even those things which are not directly observable
but affect humans from outside.
For example Customs, Belief Systems, etc.
He used it in developing theories of Division of Labour (DOL), Religion, Suicide.
Merton – Used in his study of Reference Group Behaviour.
Collected data on American Soldiers to show Relative Deprivation.

Karl Marx – His works used data from history. He is a positivist yet not a positivist
(While discussing Capitalism –positivist, Exploitation – Revolutionary,
Communism – Romantic Philosopher).

Elements of positivism can be summarised as:

1) Study of observable phenomena and collecting information for the same.

Rejecting the study of internal side.

2) Use of scientific methods initially supposed to be similar to natural Sciences.

But later more specific methods devised.
Example – Durkheim’s theory of suicide classical exhibition of positivist
methodology conclusions drawn using multivariate analysis.
Also, Durkheim – Use of data on Suicide Rates, Religious membership.

3) Stress on Universal theories.

4) Creation of testable knowledge, i.e., reliability

5) Emphasising absolute objectivity, total value freedom.

Criticism -

Obsession for positivism has been lost but it provided initial motivation for
sociology to establish.

Various problems –
1) Interpretative School – Weber, Dilthey – Not possible to study human
behavior using methods of natural sciences.

2) Sociology should be concerned with SU of OR (Subjective Understanding of

Objective Reality)

3) Post Modernists – Derrida, Foucault – Reality can be studied in many ways.

4) Interactionist – Mead, Cooley, Blumer- Actions and Interactions result in

Social Actions.

5) Phenomenonologist – Peter Berger, Schutz – Generalisations not possible.

Positivism is not concerned with Sociology but is concerned with making
Science out of Sociology. Social realities are made, dismantled and remade.

6) Ethnomethodologists – Garfinkel – Reality be studied from People’s

perspective and not Researcher’s perspective.

7) Positivists themselves divided between use of Inductivism or deductivism.

8) Paul Feyerabend – Gave the idea of anti-methodology.

9) Alvin Gouldner – Reflexive Sociology (individual reflects on his/her own

actions)

10) Anthony Giddens – Theory of Structuration

11) RK Merton - Over emphasizing Universal theories. Instead use Middle-

Ranged theories.

12) Gunnar Myrdal - Complete objectivity not desirable.

13) Intestability of various positivist theories. Like Parsons’.

14) Jurgen Habermas – Since humans study humans, thus, complete

separation of facts and values not possible.

15) Max Horkheimer – Positivism is engaged in ‘objective anarchism’, an

obsession to study everything objectively.
Fact value and objectivity

Objectivity means freedom from personal biases.

Fact – Empirically verifiable.

Value – Desirable.

Value Neutrality – Indifference to the matter in hand. No opinions or values

about the matter. Which might be unrealistic or unnecessary if we are
objective.
That is, whatever be the conclusion, nothing is prescribed as such.

Objectivity – It allows Sociologist to have positions or opinions if it is based on

scientific methods, evidence-based reasoning, logic, etc.
The focus is on means, that is, the methods.

Values or Personal bias come from Race, caste, language, religion, culture etc.
Source of value is, thus, through Socialisation.
These values influence human thoughts and actions.

Premise of Positivism – Fact and value are in dichotomous relationship.

Jurgen Habermas – Since humans study humans, thus, complete separation of

facts and values not possible.

Vilfredo Pareto – Sociology should study ‘what is’ rather than ‘what ought to
be’.

Problem of objectivity appears at different stages:

1) Choice of subject matter

2) Formulation of the problem
3) Accumulation of data
4) Data analysis
5) Hypothesis building
6) Testing of theory
1) Choice of topic not considered a problem of subjectivity.
Max Weber - Distinguish between value freedom and value reference. Value
reference can be made while doing investigation. Value reference has to be
ensured.
Merton – The very choice of topic is influenced by personal preferences and
ideological biases of researcher.
Also, topic of suicide has received disproportionate amount of attention in
Sociology after Durkheim’s study.

2) Formulation of problem depends on prevailing choice of investigators

debates and this issue is considered objective

3) Accumulation of data faces the problem of objectivity.

Andre Beteille – Brahmins did not let him visit the Unthouchables’ locality,
hence subjectivity can also creep in because of field limitations.

Interview method influenced by subjectivity of interviewer and interviewee.

William Whyte - study of Italian criminals concluded. “I started as a Non-
participant observer but ended as participant non-observer”

4) Interpretation of facts also coloured by viewpoints of investigator.

Robert Redfield (functionalist) and Oscar Lewis (Marxist) studied the same
village in Mexico around the same time but their interpretations differed vastly.

5) Theories also suffer from biases.

Durkheim gave functional theory of religion whereas Marx gave conflict theory
of religion

6) Testing is subjected to researcher’s bias. As the tendency would be to

produce the same results. Durkheim’s Study of Suicide is accused of this.
Degree of objectivity desired in Sociology

Objectivity has been found to be neither possible nor desirable.

It is an elusive goal.

Alvin Gouldner – Fact and Value cannot be separated in empirical research.

Gunnar Myrdal- Total objectivity is an illusion.

It amounts to falsifying history and loss of basic purpose of the discipline which
is of reformist agenda.

Social problems cannot be and should not be studied objectively.

They become meaningful only within a specific cultural context.

Suggesting solutions with reference to the society is essential.

Gunnar Myrdal – “Chaos cannot organise itself into Cosmos we need

viewpoints”
Book - The Asian drama.
How objectivity can be insured

1) Comte - Suggested using positivist methods and studying macro aspects.

2) Durkheim preferred inductive methodology and Statistical Techniques.

Weber also suggested scientific methods (Verstehen, Ideal Types) to ensure
objectivity.

3) Weber - Training the investigator.

4) Stating one’s own bias.

5) Organising criticism through Peer Review.

6) By refraining from advocating preference of any view point.

7) Using testing techniques to ensure reliability and validity

8) Stating field limitations.

9) Triangulation – Using various methods to cross check the outcome.

10) Durkheim – Book : Rules of Sociological Method.

For study of Social Facts – 4 Rules : Observation, Classification, Distinction,
Explanantion.

11) Herbert Marcuse – Objectivity in Sociology is a limitation of the discipline.

12) Max Horkheimer – Contemporary Sociology demands plural theories.

13) Theodor Adorno – Positivism is negative dialectics.