Notes: Sociology as Science- 2 | Sociology Mains Optional for UPSC 2024 PDF Download

 Page 1


 
 
Chapter 2  
Sociology as Science 
 
Major theoretical strands of 
research methodology. 
Positivism and its critique. 
Fact value and objectivity.  
Page 2


 
 
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. 
  
Page 3


 
 
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)  
Page 4


 
 
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. 
Page 5


 
 
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.