SOCI1503 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Heinrich Rickert, Wilhelm Dilthey, Auguste Comte
Document Summary
Early sociological studies considered the field of sociology to be similar to the natural sciences, like physics or biology. As a result, many researchers argued that the methodology used in the natural sciences was perfectly suited for use in the social sciences. The effect of employing the scientific method and stressing empiricism was the distinction of sociology from theology, philosophy, and metaphysics. This also resulted in sociology being recognized as an empirical science. Comte, led to positivism, an idea that data derived from sensory experience and that logical and mathematical treatments of such data are together the exclusive source of all authentic knowledge. The goal of positivism, like the natural sciences, is prediction. In the case of sociology, positivism"s goal is prediction of human behavior, which is a complicated proposition. The goal of predicting human behavior was quickly realized to be a bit lofty.
