The Imperative of Unity Between Values and Science in Social Research

• In Event: History of Sociology and Social Thought Section Open Call Paper Session

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between values and science in sociological research. Rejecting the categorization of sociology as either a value-free science or a value-driven ideology, I regard it as a discipline of enactment research, in which the unity of values and science is imperative. Drawing on the concept of ontological malleability, I argue that sociological inquiry must integrate scientific reasoning with normative commitments, seeking to understand the world in order to change it in ethically justified and empirically grounded ways. As such, sociological research requires both value-guided goals and science-based methods, whose unity commits sociologists to studying not only the structural constraints but also the reform possibilities of the social world. Contrasting positivist, idealist, and pragmatist orientations in social inquiry, I endorse the pragmatist stance for its balanced attention to normative aspirations and empirical feasibility. Ultimately, the article calls for a sociology that is both ethically grounded and scientifically rigorous – one that seeks not only to understand the world, but to change it responsibly.

Author

• Shanyang Zhao, Temple University