Do you believe sociology is a science?

Hi everybody,

I wanted to see your views on sociology and if you agree if it is a scientific subject in the strictest since. I am asking this because there are some who disagree with this notion or have doubts about it.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Kind regards,
Chad

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Reply 1

alexvicar

more like a sub science as I would call it. The main sciences are Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. The sub sciences are economics, philosophy, geography, geology, psychology, sociology etc.

Reply 2

G-Sci

Original post by Horner94

I would say yes! However I wouldn’t put it in the same category as things like physics, biochemistry etc.
What is your view?

Reply 3

Easosos1

Original post by Horner94

Reply 4

TheBritishKoala

I agree with @alexvicar - it is a science just not in the traditional sense. Some people also call it a 'soft' science.

Reply 5

1secondsofvamps

Class it as "social science"

Reply 6

Claire461

Original post by Horner94

It’s a social science. And, if it’s a subject you want to study, you just ignore the TSR ‘Mickey Mouse subject’ brigade.
I did some in my first year, but I wouldn’t have taken it as a degree. I found it a bit dry.

Reply 7

PTMalewski

Original post by alexvicar

more like a sub science as I would call it. The main sciences are Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. The sub sciences are economics, philosophy, geography, geology, psychology, sociology etc.

I wouldn't say that Philosophy is a sub-science.
Most if not all of sciences historically originate from Philosophy, each has philosophical basis even if unintended. Also there is an area called 'Philosophy of Science' which is on methodologies, the point of science etc.

Reply 8

PTMalewski

I certainly do not believe, because I'm not a follower of the sociology-is-science religion.

But I think it is science because it uses scientific methodologies. It even uses mathematics to get data.

I'm not really interested in it, but it's good to know a few theories, some data provided by the science, to catch a grasp of cybernetics (in terms of human behaviour control and systems design in general, not computers only)

Reply 9

HighOnGoofballs

Original post by PTMalewski

No...just no. Philosophy is definitely not a science. It's theoretical and theological, not objective. It involves no more than mindless debate, not concrete experimentation.

Reply 10

PTMalewski

Original post by HighOnGoofballs

No...just no. Philosophy is definitely not a science. It's theoretical and theological, not objective. It involves no more than mindless debate, not concrete experimentation.

Philosophy is not theology, and there are different kinds of philosophies.
Philosophy of science uses empirical evidence to support or overthrow methods of scientific research. Scientists may even deny supporting any philosophy, but in the end each follows some paradigm that has been described in philosophy of science.

Also there is the Analitical philosophy. The Lisp programming language originates from analitical philosophy, to be exact from the prefix/Warsaw/Polish notation created by Jan Łukasiewicz, a philosopher from Lwów-Warsaw school of Analitical philosophy.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 11

Bk4753

Original post by Horner94

Science because follows the basic scientific method.

It's not a 'hard' science seeing as it doesn't employ the rigorous mathematics and laboratory work those sciences do (physics, chemistry and biology)
Comp sci is exempt from this because despite not being a traditional science it has managed to garner the respect associated with the 'hard' sciences.

To summarise, Sociology would be a social science like econ (which is probably the 'hardest' soft/social science). But not a science to those referring to 'hard' sciences.

Reply 12

Axiomasher

Original post by Horner94

How are you defining 'science', how are you defining 'strictest sense'? Is physics a science? Is biology a science? Is zoology a science? Is the study of animal behaviour a science? Is the study of the behaviour of the animal categorised as 'human' a science? Is the study of the social behaviour of the animal categorised as 'human' a science? See what I did there?

Reply 13

Axiomasher

Original post by HighOnGoofballs

No...just no. Philosophy is definitely not a science. It's theoretical and theological, not objective. It involves no more than mindless debate, not concrete experimentation.

The thing is, 'science' is underpinned bya body of philosophy, not all of which is absolutely agreed upon, there's plenty of literature on the subject. Adam Chalmers' What is This Thing Called Science? is among several introductions.

Reply 14

ChaoticButterfly

Original post by HighOnGoofballs

No...just no. Philosophy is definitely not a science. It's theoretical and theological, not objective.

Sociology is applied philosophy, just like other sciences. It can be both theoretical and empirical. The two are (or should be) tied to each other (like any science). Sociology is vert much not theological. It doesn't concern itself with such questions and spends most of its time studing humans in a pretty god free way. When it talkes about religion it talks how the action and ideas of religion effect humans and thier socities in a way where the existance or not of god is pretty irrelevent. Sociology generally treats the notion of there being an objective reality we can observe as being true.

Reply 15

Axiomasher

Original post by alexvicar

more like a sub science as I would call it. The main sciences are Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. The sub sciences are economics, philosophy, geography, geology, psychology, sociology etc.

The discipline of mathematics is not usually understood as among the 'sciences' even though it is a centrally used tool among them.

Reply 16

OGGUS

Yeah it's a social science.
It's the science of the society we live in.
Which is based on facts which is what science is... 👀

Reply 17

theuncannyshi

I do sociology at a-level and I see it as a social science but wouldn’t call it a traditional science, I also do psychology but i wouldn’t call that a social science so idk.

Reply 18

marinade

No.

In the UK really big money research areas on the sociology of health and sociology of crime and big money linked to academia and government, a lot of research method stuff and data collection. If you look on other sociology modules on undergrad and postgraduate modules, some really interesting stuff in there.

Call it a social science if you want. Quite a lot of overlap with some other subjects. One of the things I dislike a lot about university degrees in the UK is the obsession on grade, institution and then name of subject. People very rarely go into any depth about what sort of things are studied on degrees, it's just perceptions of names.

Reply 19

RV3112

Original post by Horner94

Yes, Sociology is a science.

It's not a natural science, which is the type of science that people equate with the generic term "Science" most often, but it is a science nonetheless.