Auguste Comte and Positivism

458 Words2 Pages
What is explained in this quote is that sociology should be analyzed and stressed with the same intricacies science goes through. Auguste Comte believes that sociology should be carried through with the same thought process as natural science. However, I disagree with this quote. Many things in natural science are uniform, physical, and really never change and are predictable. In sociology, sociologists study the mind and behavior, which is or is almost impalpable. Sociology cannot be approached with the same process natural science uses. Sociology grasps the nonphysical aspect of nature, something that holds no pattern and shifts among many people. A sociologist can generalize their answer based among a macro-level analysis but when you reach the grit of any sociological analysis (whether it may be macro- or micro-) there are always things that stand out, and do not hold a law, but only a theory. Sociology has to be analyzed with finesse and there is no formula or certain research method used to find an answer pertaining to a sociological study. Every study is different in sociology, and holds their own unique “formula” for a sociological analysis. In natural science, scientists look for the facts, and objectify their studies with facts. In sociology, the “facts” scientists use, are different from sociology facts. You cannot take 50 people in a certain population, perform an experiment and use the recorded results and apply it to the 7 billion people living in the world. Sociology studies populations, and populations are constantly shifting in all aspects of the sociological world. There is no scientific method for sociology; there are only steps that one may perform to reach their desired result, whatever that may be. Auguste Comte was clearly a positivist, but I lean more towards the interpretivist view. Positivists believe in concise measurements and facts
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