On Science, Academia, and Knowledge
A while ago I was talking to a certain acquaintance about why it is important to consider racial differences when conducting certain social studies. I don’t remember what we were discussing exactly, but at some point I mentioned that it was impossible to get objective results, or “facts”, about people and society, simply because our social environment is in constant change. To this, my interlocutor responded that if sociologists are unable to reach discrete truths, then it must be that Sociology is not a scientific field. Although that wasn’t the first time I’d heard something like this, our conversation got me thinking about what it is that people consider to be science. Moreover, it felt to me that by disregarding a field as scientific meant that its knowledge was automatically of less value than that of other fields. I, personally, and for quite obvious reasons disagree with this view, but I’d like to share a bit of why that is the case. Defining “Science” In The Process of Soc...