Disciplinary knowledge revisited: The social construction of sociology

Article Abstract:

Examples of case studies are presented to illustrate that sociology is socially constructed, and social processes play more of a role in the development of knowledge in applied sciences like medicine and even in some of the non-experimental natural sciences like evolutionary biology. It is argued that the disciplinary paradigm in sociology includes a preference for structural explanations as opposed to cultural explanations, and structural explanations concern how the society is actually organized and acts to influence the fate of people.

Technology and civilization, Technology and society, Evolution (Biology), Evolution, Social constructionism

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Sociology as a historical science

Article Abstract:

The challenge of historical sociology, or for any historical science, is to inhabit the tension between the two imageries of time, the time's arrow and the time's cycle. It is argued that historical sciences are not scientific because they rely on interpretations, and the contributions of historical sciences are presented as equivalent to the interpretations of a single creative individual.

Europe, History, 20th century AD, Social sciences, 19th century AD, Historical sociology

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Reconceptualizing knowledge accumulation in sociology

Article Abstract:

The primitive and empirical sense of cumulativity in sociology are discussed, suggesting that primitive cumulativity consists of piling things up, which is called 'accumulation'. It is learnt that cumulation involves commensurability, a building directly on things before, while empirical regularities allow knowing large numbers of particular facts in an efficient way.

Empiricism, Knowledge, Social life

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