Sources of Knowledge in Sociology

Running heads: Subject of enquiry
Subject of enquiry
Name of the student
Name of the university
Authors note

Subject of enquiry
What sources of knowledge are (not)valued in your discipline? Why?
Learning is a process of acquiring new knowledge, behaviours skills, values or
preferences. Knowledge s acquired by human beings in three ways, one by hearing, or by
learning or by experiencing (Witten & Hammond2010). Sociology is a subject, which deals
with understanding the dynamics of the social structure. In this subject, the evolving
relationship between the agent and the structure is studied. Traditionally the transfer of
knowledge was seen as a linear process, where the researcher would investigate the matter
and obtain knowledge. Thus knowledge was treated as commodity so in the work of the
classical sociologist like Emile Durkheim we get to know that sociology is a study of social
fact (sui generis). This signifies that anything is which fact or has an objective reality will be
considers as a subject of enquiry in social science. Here lies the contribution of positivist
paradigm, where social science was based on the natural science principle. Thus nothing,
which is empirical or does not have any objective side, will be considered as a subject of
enquiry in sociology. In this case, ontology to this kind of enquiry is build on the objective
reality and the epistemology is the positivism.
This view has been criticised by many authors because unlike the natural world
subjects in social science exercises the will of their situated agency (Dean, 2019). Thus, it is
very important to interpret the reality. Here comes the scientific way how the social reality
will be studied this was described by Weber, where develops a method of verstehen, where
interpretation of the social action is needed. Thus, social sciences is an oxymoron because it
includes the scientific accuracy as well as the freedom of expression, which is in the
periphery of art or humanities. The ontology of this kind of enquiry falls in the subjective
dimension and the epistemology is the interpretivism. Here the subjective dimension of the
respondents will be considered. Knowledge is no more constructed , the enquiry of truth is
not just existing in facts but it is also something which is being expressed. This is because the