Socjologia jako nauka, czyli znów zadane pytanie: What is so great about science?
Sociology as a Science – the Problem Revisited: “What is so Great about Science?”

Summary/Abstract: Nowadays, science is generally regarded as domain treated with respect, approval and trust. Scientists and researchers try to confirm their results by showing the criteria considered as scientia. This article aims to present briefly how sociologists manage with their discipline which obviously is somewhere in-between science and humanities. I quote the famous statement of Paul Feyerabend, who discussed the methodological issues with Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn and Imre Lakatos. I confine myself to the minimum detail of metatheory in order to present one theoretical paradigm, focusing on presentation of Jeffrey Alexander’s work, who combines different ideas about sociology. My aim is to revive the idea of “classical” positivism to check, in what way it still exists in sociological ideas. The changes in case of theory and empirical studies are taken into account. I present sociological debates and lack of consensus as far as “sociology as science” is concerned. The idealistic view, that these debates sometimes become conclusive, is presented. I take postpositivistic ideology of Alexander, since it occurs to have been the only way to link two kinds of doing science. It shows the consensus between the so called humanistic tradition and “neopositivistic view” in sociology.

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