Revision summary
Scientific method is necessary for sociology as public, comparative knowledge. Durkheim: social facts as things, suicide rates, concomitant variation. That illustration founds a science of society. It is not sufficient as a physics costume. Weber’s meaning and official coding remain scientific issues.
Model answer
Introduction
A scientific method of public evidence and comparison is necessary for sociology to be a science. It is not sufficient if the object is wrongly reduced. Durkheim’s suicide study is the illustration of both the gain and the remaining debate.
Body
Durkheim’s method as science
- Treat social facts as things: external, constraining, and measurable as rates.
- Comparative concomitant variation across religion, family, and country.
- Reject introspection as the main path. Auguste Comte’s positive programme is here made operational.
What this achieves
- A pattern of suicide that private motives cannot explain.
- Repeatable tables, later extendable to NCRB-type files.
Why method is not a full baptism
- Max Weber still required meaning. Official coding is itself a social practice.
- Karl Popper would ask whether types are at risk of failure.
- If “scientific method” means only physics-like laws, Durkheim already stretched the copy.
Answer
- Method makes sociology scientific in the sense of disciplined, comparative knowledge.
- The object remains society, not particles.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD SM[Scientific method] --> D[Durkheim rates comparison] D --> SCI[Sociology as science of facts] W[Weber meaning] --> QUAL[Still science of society] SCI --> QUAL
Conclusion
Durkheim shows that a scientific method of rates and comparison can found sociology as a science of social facts. It does not freeze the discipline as a lesser physics. Meaning and coding remain later scientific problems, not a return to guesswork.
Quick related
Students also ask
-
Examine ethnomethodological and phenomenological perspective as critique of positivism
Next question on this syllabus topic (2017 · Q1(b)). View answer →
-
If we use interviews, is sociology unscientific?
Not if claims are evidenced and comparable. Durkheim’s path is one scientific path.
-
Did Durkheim copy physics?
He copied the demand for external facts and comparison, not the laboratory.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
-
2020 · Q1(b) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
Is sociology a value-free science ? Discuss. -
2020 · Q1(c) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
Methodology is a system of rules, principles and procedures, which forms. scientific investigation. Comment. -
2018 · Q2(a) · Sociology GS 1 · 20 marks
Is non-positivist methodology scientific? Illustrate. -
2017 · Q1(b) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
Examine ethnomethodological and phenomenological perspective as critique of positivism -
2017 · Q1(c) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
Illustrate with example the significance of variable in sociology research -
2016 · Q1(b) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
What is 'value-free sociology'? Clarify -
2016 · Q3(b) · Sociology GS 1 · 15 marks
Describe the basic postulates of scientific method. How far are these followed in sociological research? -
2016 · Q4(a) · Sociology GS 1 · 20 marks
Examine Max Weber's method of maintaining objectivity in social research.
More from this topic
Q5(d) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
How does Weber's Verstehen address the objectivity-subjectivity debate in sociology?
Sociology as Science
Verstehen is interpretative understanding of meaningful social action. Ideal types help compare cases without pretending to be full copies of reality. Value relevance selects topics; value freedom forbids twisting evidence to preach. This rejects naive positivist objectivity as a view from nowhere. It also rejects the idea that interpretation is only the scholar’s private feeling. Actors’ meanings remain checkable through comparison, documents and consequences.
Q2(c) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
What do you mean by reliability? Discuss the importance of reliability in social science research.
Sociology as Science
Reliability is the consistency of a measure across time, items and raters. It differs from validity, which asks whether the right concept is being measured. Types include test–retest, split-half or alpha, and inter-coder agreement. Durkheimian rates and modern surveys both depend on stable classification. Qualitative work still needs transparent, repeatable coding. Without reliability, comparison, replication and policy use of data collapse.
Q2(a) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 1 · 20 marks
What is positivism? Critically analyze the major arguments against it
Sociology as Science
Positivism treats sociology as a science of observable regularities, after Comte and Durkheim. Its strength is accountability to data, comparison and replication. Weberian understanding, phenomenology and ethnomethodology deny that meanings are mere residuals. Critical theory and feminist standpoint theories deny the neutrality of the observer. Giddens’s double hermeneutic states that people already interpret the world sociologists study. Indian field studies show why census categories cannot replace meaning, even when counts remain essential.
Toppers' copies
Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.