Sociology is often referred to as a social science. Whether or not it can be seen as a scientific discipline is one of the major debates within the subject. The founding fathers of the subject in the 19th century were however in no doubt. By following the rules and logics of the scientific method sociology could discover the laws underlying the development of human society. And in this respect it was a science just like the natural sciences of physics and chemistry which seek to discover the laws underlying the behavior of matter.
Positivists claim natural science methods can be applied to sociology. They believe that social facts can be objectively measured and quantified. Correlations can be discovered through statistics, causes can be identified and lead to defining laws of human behaviour. Therefore sociology could be considered as a science.
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