SOAN 3070 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: William Fielding Ogburn, Auguste Comte, Social Science

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology and Anthropology
• Course: SOAN 3070
• Professor: Anna Borisenkova

Document Summary

Imprecise subject matter vs. imprecise study of subjects. Qualitative researchers need to be more precise over all other researchers. Auguste comte created the word sociology but he called it (cid:498)social physics(cid:499) He was thinking about how this could be equal to all other sciences but took precise scientific methods. He argued sociology needed to become a real science. He wanted sociology to be a field to look more like the natural sciences (like physics and biology) He wanted to relate sociology to the actual lives of people. He worked a lot with students (graded and under-graded) Told them they needed to get their pants dirty for research. A true sociologist should always be in true contact with the object of his study. Thought that the most important things for a social scientist to do was to go around the neighbourhood and find out what was going on that day interact. Gain authentic experience with all human beings.