Anti Positivist Analysis

Introduction Sociology as a science has sparked numerous debates and discourses over the century, the adhesive notion of comparing sociology and the natural sciences have dwelled over a few major issues. The factors are as follows: there is more subjectivity than objectivity and scientific bias from sociologists as they are emerged in a social scientific experiment, conclusions of social experiments are sometimes unreliable and not replicable, and sociology projects a snapshot of the society in its epoch, consequently making the subject complex and dynamic to analyse (Thompson and Hickey 2011, p. 30-31). A distinctive example of such features can be seen in contrasting schools of thoughts between the conflict and functionalist theories. Thus,

The interpretation of the society appreciates the understanding of local context, dwelling on the empathetic efforts in interpreting social behaviours and phenomenon. As such, interpretive sociology aims to dive into the depths of society and understand “the motives and meanings that guide individuals’ actions” (Alexander and Thompson 2008, p. 42). Max Weber’s worldly renowned book economy and society, talks about the observations made in formulating the social action theory, as he subjects himself into the profound frictions and “observed them at close range” (Scaff 2008, p. 64). While the positivist crunches the numbers and produce casual relationships to understand the actual experience of the society, the interpretive sociologist on the other hand develops the empirical evidence and formulate a “thematic analysis” that emphasize on the “process of social meanings” (Neumann 2000, p.

So to reaffirm the contention, is sociology a science? Sociology is a science as it is put through a series of rigorous and systematic methodologies with the use of empirical evidence drawn from the society. Sociologists, regardless of the methods used qualitative or quantitative, largely obey a methodical framework of scientific research. As Thompson and Hickey (2011, p. 34) points out an “eight steps of the scientific method” where it serves as a fundamental template for most if not all social scientific research. The results and objectives of sociology must never be compared with the natural sciences with regards to the debate of a scientific discipline as both are inherently