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.
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If we use interviews, is sociology unscientific?
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Did Durkheim copy physics?
He copied the demand for external facts and comparison, not the laboratory.
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