Social science as a moral theology by Neil Postman dismisses the existence of social science under which sociology as a discipline falls. Postman does not believe that social scientists such as sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists and media ecologists do science. In his perspective, there is a difference between processes and practices. Process, according to him, has a physiological cause that has an explanation and can be understood within a context of various established theories (Postman, 1984). On the contrary, practices have unknowable meaning hence almost impossible to predict or explain in casual related situations.
Neil Postman argues that sociology cannot be a scientific discipline because it fails to provide assumptions on causes and effects relating to processes. Hence, it is not in a position to establish immutable and universal laws which govern the processes like science can do. Sociology focus is on human behavior and interaction with people and their surroundings. Its quantification and empiricism are not scientific. Different people can do counting and make an observation which is observed by others before making conclusions, and this does not make them qualify to be scientists. Postman objection of sociology as a scientific discipline is based on the research methodology used especially on data collection which includes; Questionnaires, sampling, observation, prediction, and empiricism used by Milgram in his experiment.
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Postman believes that we should understand sociology as a sub-division of moral theology other than as a social science (Postman, 1894). According to him, most social researchers do not emphasize their claims to knowledge on indisputability of sacred books and revelations but aim at improving social life instead of scholarship. Moral theory and social research have a similarity in that both never get to make discoveries on anything. They only rediscover what people already know and what they need to be told from time to time. Social research in sociology, according to Postman, is to rediscover the truths of social life, criticize the moral behavior of people and come up with ideas on how people can live together.
The Sociological Imagination Chapter One: The Promise C. Wright Mills (1959)
Mills defines “Sociological imagination” as an ability to see things in a social perspective and shows how they interact and affect each other. “Neither the life of an individual nor the society can be understood without understanding both” (Mills, 1959). According to him, he believes that individuals cannot understand their role in society without comprehending society from individual perspectives. Mills characterizes a man’s life as a spectator of the everyday milieu. He further contends that people often feel their private lives are a series of traps (Mills, 1959). Individuals feel they cannot do certain things because they are unable to overcome obstacles that stand their way. Mills work can be characterized by:
Power and Authority
Mills describes a man’s situation as that of being powerless in the larger global political conditions that they are not able to control. In governance, the governed almost have no role to play because governments do not rely on their consent. According to him, symbols of legitimation serve to justify or oppose arrangements of power and authority within society. Hence, these symbols are not autonomous like we are made to believe (Mill, 1959).
The Individual and the Society
Mills tries to familiarize people with their society by making the strange to be familiar. He creates a forum in which they can question and critique the world around them. To this end, people are able to learn and recognize the connection between their individual experiences and those of the broader society.
The way of understanding the world is important so that people can be able to relate personal troubles and public issues through awareness of the relationship that exists between personal experience and the wider society. Individuals stand a chance to have a complete sense of specific anxiety and crises in our society through an experience on the connection of biography and history. Hence, individuals know their personal lives are shaped by the society that they live in and their historical era they belong to.
Postman versus the Social Sciences
Neil Postman maintains that Sociology is not a scientific discipline of social sciences based on its research methodology. On the other hand, there is possible proof that Sociology qualifies to be a science as stated in the third chapter of Anderson textbook review on research methodology employed by Sociologists. Observation in sociology does not require a laboratory because the social world acts as one. It is impossible to put human beings under scrutiny in a laboratory because experiments conducted in laboratories aim at measuring the relationship between two variables and keeping other factors constant. On the contrary, Sociology employs the same idea, not in a formal laboratory but through statistics. Postman can be discredited because experiments in laboratories are not the only criteria for science. Indeed, Sociology is not hindered by subject matter but by limitations placed in societies. Examples include Newton and Archimedes who did not make laws in the laboratory.
Ethical considerations are guaranteed when research is being conducted with the participant's consent. The participants, therefore, get to know the purpose and process of the study as explained to them and they are allowed to withdraw from the experiment at their own will. Verbal consent ensures that participants participate freely. For instance, from the Milgram experiment, Anderson can state he exercised ethical conduct because he did not subject his participants to torture through electrocuting them (Postman, 1924). Milgram’s study can also be approved to apply to people in a laboratory under such conditions which are arranged because human experimentation is not authorized.
References
Mills, W. (1959). The Promise: The Sociological Imagination.
Postman, N. (1984 ). Social Science as Theology . Etc., 41(1), 22-32.
