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Epistemology, Ontology & Methods
Relating Theory to Method in Sociology
Epistemology - "
How do you know what you know?"
Ontology - The Ontological Argument for the existence of God.
Methods - Techniques and tools that you use in the field of study.
Paradigms - Thomas Kuhn - Ideas that shape what we see.
Relativism and Realism
Relativism
Subjective
Opinions/ ideas
No independent reality
Social Construction of reality
Qualitative data
Realism
Objective
Numbers / statistics
Reality exists independently of us.
Reality is there to be discovered.
Quantitative data
Positivism
Scientific Logic
Social reality can only be questioned in terms of external reality.
Causality - Cause and effect relationships are discussed
Phenomena directly observable
Karl Marx - however can be seen as a realist.
Look at reality in terms of social forces
Durkheim and suicide
The Positivist Epistemology
Or how do positivists know what they know?
They rely on numerical methods. They collect a lot of numbers and statistics. They collect QUANTATITIVE data.
They use the methods of the ?natural sciences?. The ?real? sciences
The Logic of the Scientific method is utilized.
They follow the views of Empiricism -
that valid knowledge must be observable and examined scientifically.
Data must be tested and demonstrated by other scientists.
Marxism
Methods are based on Empiricism.
Empiricism refers to that which can be observed.
Marxism states that social structures are real.
Social structures are not simply an idea in our minds.
Difference between Realism and Positivism
Positivism deals with phenomena that can be directly observed.
Realism deals with phenomena that can be indirectly observed.
Television & Radio Waves
The Ice - Berg example
Interpretivists Ontology
It is people that create reality.
People are not passive
Free -will versus Determinism Debate
People are conscious agents with wills of their own.
Ontology & Epistemology continued..
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