Sociology and Science

Sociology and ScienceSociology: The Science of What?

Society is an elusive concept.Examples from Four Theoretical Perspectives:Symbolic InteractionismMarxismEthnomethodologyFunctionalismThus according to the definition of Thomas Kuhn, Sociology is not a normal science.Normal science is paradigmatic.Sociology is pre- or multi-paradigmatic.Sociology: The Science of What?Similarly, Morris Cohen suggested that sociology can never share features of normal science, for three reasons:The complexity and variability of social phenomena;The differences between laws in natural/physical sciences and laws in sociology;The differences between natural and social causation.