Philosophical Issues important for sociology- Epistemology is the theory of how we know what we know. (Greek episteme, "knowledge"; logos, "theory"), branch of philosophy that addresses the philosophical problems surrounding the theory of knowledge. Epistemology is concerned with the definition of knowledge and related concepts, the sources and criteria of knowledge, the kinds of knowledge possible and the degree to which each is certain, and the exact relation between the one who knows and the object known.
- Some sociologists tend to think that the best way to study human societies is to use the methods and procedures of the physical sciences (e.g., physics, chemistry) and thus tend to emphasize quantitative methods such as statistics and computer modeling. These are often associated with:
- Mechanism, materialism, naturalism: Mechanism, in philosophy, is a term designating any concept according to which the universe is completely explicable in terms of mechanical processes. There is much debate and concern about the degree to which human societies can be likened to a machine. In this general sense mechanism is practically equivalent to materialism, the idea that material things and processes drive all of life. The term is often used, however, as a synonym for naturalism, the doctrine that the phenomena of nature are not regulated by divine or supernatural intelligence, but are adequately explained by the mechanical laws of chemistry and physics. In the latter sense the customary antonym of mechanism is teleology, sometimes called finalism, the doctrine that nature and creation are ordered by a divine plan and fulfill divinely appointed ends.
- 3. Other sociologists tend to think that human society needs to be looked at more on its own terms, because human society is based on meanings and human creativity. These sociologists are more likely to use qualitative methods, like ethnography.
- 4. Utilitarianism: a tradition of thought which believes that, given a chance, human individuals tend to rationally maximize pleasure and minimize pain, and that the goal of social organization should be to gain the greatest good (or pleasure) for the greatest number. Rational choice theory in sociology is a descendant of utilitarianism, as is neoclassical economic theory.