Sociology 2240E Chapter 3: Chapter 3
7 Feb 2017
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He was very insecure and had mental problems (tried committing suicide) The usual meaning for positivism is the search for invariant laws of both natural and the social world. It involves empirical research, but that research is subordinated to theory. Though (cid:373)a(cid:374)y people do(cid:374)"t use o(cid:396) ag(cid:396)ee (cid:449)ith positi(cid:448)is(cid:373) it is still see(cid:374) i(cid:374) so(cid:272)iology today, though (cid:373)a(cid:374)y people find it in a postpositivist stage. Comte discovered sociology in 1839: he defined sociology as a positivistic science (using physics- the most positivistic science, as his example, his hierarchy of positivistic sciences, math astronomy physics biology chemistry sociology. He denies psychology: ^ most general to the most complex (sociology) Observations should be directed by some theory (or rejected) , and when made, they shoud be connected to the law: experiment. First, we can compare humans to lower animal societies. Second, we can compare societies in different parts of the world.
