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SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIETY 7 In any political or military conflict evidence that allow others to check on it is of advantage to capture the or to repeat to develop his/her findings information used by the intelligence further. There has been considerable organs of the opposing side. But this debate within sociology about the is so only because good intelligence differences betweennaturalscienceand human science, between quantitative consists of information free of bias. If a spy does his/her reporting in and qualitative research. We need not terms of the ideology and ambitions enter this here. But what is relevant of his/her superiors, his/her here is that sociology in its observation and analysis has to follow certain rules reports are useless not only to the that can be checked upon by others. enemy, if the latter should capture them, but also to the spy’s own In the next section, we compare side... The sociologist is a spy in very sociological knowledge to common sense knowledge which will once again much the same way. His/her job is emphasise the role of methods, to report as accurately as he/she procedures and rules in the manner in can about a certain terrain (Berger 1963:16-17). which sociology conducts its observation of society. Chapter 5 of this Does this mean that the sociologist book will provide you with a sense of has no social responsibility to ask what sociologists do and how they go about studying society. An elaboration about the goals of his/her study or the work to which the sociological findings of the differences between sociology will be applied. He/she has such a and common sense knowledge will responsibility, just like any other help towards a clearer idea of the sociological approach and met hod. citizen of society. But this asking is not sociological asking. This is like the biologist whose biological knowledge V can be employed to heal or kill. This SOCIOLOGY AND C OMMON does not mean the biologist is free of SENSE K NOWLEDGE responsibility as to which use s/he We have seen how sociological serves. But this is not a biological question. knowledge is different from theological and philosophical observations. Sociology has from its beginnings Likewise sociology is different from understood itself as a science. Unlike common sense observations. The commonsensical observations or common sense explanations are philosophical reflections or theological generally based on what may be called commentaries, sociology is bound by ‘naturalistic’ and/or individualistic scientificcanonsofprocedure.Itmeans explanation. A naturalistic explanation that the statements that the sociologist for behaviour rests on the assumption arrives at must be arrived at through that one can really identify ‘natural’ the observations of certain rules of reasons for behaviour. Reprint 2026-27