Cross-cultural dialogue--9

Author: Le Daiyun et al. (editors)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: Not available
Features: Sociology as a Science Inquiry: The Institute for Advanced Study has decided to award you the Gold Medal this year, which may cause shock. How can sociology become a science? Is there a scientific sociology? Answer: Sociology possesses certain characteristics that allow us to place it among the sciences: like other sciences, it strives to construct hypothetical harmonious models and systems and validates them empirically, particularly through observation, statistical surveys, and comparative methods. As for scientific sociology, this is a particularity within sociology itself, and for me, it is prior to any social analysis. Indeed, sociology occupies a very unique position because its object is embedded within the reality it signifies. Only astronomy is the opposite: unless one believes in astrology, astronomy does not endure the consequences of the object it studies nor does it exert influence on that object. Thus, we are confined within our object, which is one of the reasons why sociology takes skepticism as its object. Consequently, people always suspect that we may be trapped in a science bound by presuppositions and biases associated with our position within the object. This gives rise to an absolute necessity: to take the world we inhabit as an object—not the universal social world—which is relatively easier—but the world of science itself, because, in my view, this is where the principle of "circumvention" lies, so circumvented, that is, the various "interests" associated with belonging to the world of science. Bachelard spoke of the psychoanalysis of the scientific spirit. For us, the psychoanalysis of the scientific spirit is the sociology of the world of science, the sociology of sociology. Such reflective demands place us in a rather peculiar position: the position of science about science, the position of meta-science. This also explains why there are some reservations: What is the later arrival of this science? This nascent science, in the process of studying other sciences as its objects, offers them benefits. This is a reaction I fully understand. That is to say, this reaction is not as universal as one might think. The sociology of literature evokes a stronger response than the sociology of science. For instance, my work always receives support from scientists. Sometimes I wonder that when people try to speak slightly about the truth of this world, the only support they can find in this social world can only be obtained through solidarity among scientists. Perhaps it is because no one truly demands the truth of the social world, no one is particularly interested in the truth of the social world, of course, especially those in power.