Why do people often think sociology is not as good as natural science?

Sociology is a social science that studies the general laws of social development and stability; Mainly to explain social and social phenomena, provide theoretical support for the development of social science and social engineering (application) science and technology, guide social operation from a macro perspective, and realize social development and stability. It is the leading discipline of social science; Physics is the leading discipline of natural science, which provides theoretical support for the development of natural science and engineering technology science and promotes the development of human society. However, physics has developed into a mature discipline and established a complete theoretical system. The current development stage of sociology is only similar to the natural philosophy stage of physics before Newtonian mechanics, that is, it is basically in the social philosophy stage. So far, there is no accepted definition of sociological science.

Since the birth of human society, the study of society and nature has started at the same time and has the same long history. As a scientific knowledge, ideas and theories about society can also be found in the works of ancient Greek philosophers. However, those things cannot be called sociology. Judging from the scientific significance of "organized knowledge", the birth of sociology is generally considered by foreign academic circles to have begun in the 1930s, marked by the term "sociology" put forward by the French philosopher Okonde in Volume IV. At that time, Comte's sociology took social progress and order as two basic concepts, and mainly focused on order. Before that, he called this new discipline "positive philosophy". Therefore, the research history of sociology is actually only 160 years, which is much shorter than physics. Comte, in particular, initiated sociology, but only put forward the framework of sociology. He did not create Newton's three laws like Newton, and laid the cornerstone of classical mechanics. Nor did Einstein put forward the special theory of relativity, but there was a set of "Lorentz transformation" formula, which initiated modern physics. Compared with Newton and Einstein who laid the scientific foundation for physics, Comte did not lay the scientific foundation for sociology. His sociological framework cannot form a rigorous theoretical system, and his sociology is similar to Aristotle's physics more than 2500 years ago. Therefore, it is understandable that sociology is in a backward state today.

Now is the high-tech era, why is sociological theory so backward? In order to truly understand the root of this problem and better promote the development and maturity of sociology, it is necessary to discuss in detail the reasons for the backwardness of sociology.

Sociology, as a science, comes into being and develops with the development of society.

Any science is the product of the development of society to a certain extent according to its own nature and characteristics. Taking physics as an example, Newtonian mechanics and classical physics emerged and developed with the emergence and development of European industry and capitalist economy. Relativity and quantum mechanics are established and developed on the basis of modern science and technology and modern society with the development of industry. Similarly, sociology is bound to emerge and develop with the development of society.

1. Historical background of European sociology

In Europe, since the17th century, epoch-making bourgeois revolutions have taken place in a series of countries such as Britain, France and Germany, ending the dark ages of the Middle Ages in Europe, and European society has developed rapidly. With the development of capitalist economy, social problems in European countries are increasing day by day, and social phenomena are more complicated, which further affects social development and stability, causing thinking and concern from all walks of life. Especially the victory of the French bourgeois revolution from 65438 to 0789, which is different from the British bourgeois revolution in the17th century. In the course of the revolution, the French bourgeoisie abandoned the banner of religion and took an open political form to fight against feudal forces, without forming a bourgeois new noble group as a special social stratum. After the victory of the revolution, how to manage the society scientifically, make people in the society consciously integrate into the society where they live, and realize social stability and development is even more urgent. It is in this situation that Comte put forward the "sociology" theory of studying society based on the two basic concepts of "progress" and "order" in France and Europe, and sociology came into being in Europe.

2. The influence of social mechanism on the development of sociology

Although sociology was born in Europe and is an auxiliary discipline in all European countries, it only developed into an important discipline of social science in the United States, and the reasons should be found in the social mechanisms of European countries and the United States.

European countries and the United States are both capitalist societies, but their social mechanisms are different. European capitalist society was born out of the primitive feudal social matrix, which inevitably brought maternal birthmarks, that is, feudal social inertia. For example, after the victory of the British bourgeois revolution in17th century, the royal family was retained and the bourgeois new noble Group was formed. Even the18th century French bourgeois revolution, which was called a complete revolution in the history of bourgeois revolution, could not completely eliminate the influence of feudal social inertia. The traditional consciousness, rules and customs of feudal society have played an important role in maintaining bourgeois rule, which is the inevitable result of the constant expression of social inertia in social development. However, the inherent conservatism of social inertia also hinders the stability (order) and development (progress) of the new capitalist society and the consolidation of bourgeois regime. To stabilize and develop capitalist society and consolidate bourgeois regime, we must seek scientific new theories and laws for social stability and development. This laid a social foundation for the development of sociology in Europe. However, due to the conservatism of social inertia, sociological research is not allowed to be too far away from reality, which determines that the government will not actively support the development of sociology. So sociology must be an auxiliary subject in Europe.

America is an immigrant country with a history of more than 200 years. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, many elites from developed European countries were concentrated. They are representatives of advanced capitalist ideas, and the feudal traditional social inertia of European hereditary dynasties and nobles has little influence on this country. In order to seek scientific management of this country and realize social stability and development, sociological research naturally falls on the American government and people, which provides a solid social foundation and a broad world for sociological research and development. On the other hand, with the development of economy, especially after the War of Independence, the American economy has developed rapidly, and American industrial production ranks fourth in the world with 1860 and first with 1894. However, at the same time, social problems are also very prominent. The distribution between the rich and the poor among social members exceeds the distribution law of the normal social state, and (1) there is an abnormal and seriously polarized social distribution; With the development of economy, the urban population and overseas immigrants have also increased sharply, and ethnic conflicts have become increasingly acute, which has affected the stability and development of American society. These problems have attracted the attention of the American government and the attention of society, industry and academia, and it is urgent to strengthen sociological research to better solve the problems. Therefore, American sociology has been strongly supported and funded by the government and private enterprises, and protected and promoted by American academic freedom and democratic policies. This is the subjective need of American society and the objective condition of social mechanism, which makes sociology an important subject in American social science.

3. The development of American sociology

If the rapid development of American social economy is attributed to their emphasis on sociological research and scientific management of society, then various social problems such as unemployment, drug abuse, violence and shooting still exist in American society, and some social problems are still outstanding, which fully reflects that the current social management in the United States is not scientific; At the same time, it also reflects that the sociological research in the United States is only more developed than that in other countries, but their sociological theories are not perfect or even far apart. In fact, although sociology in the United States is very developed, sociologists have done a lot of work in both qualitative and quantitative aspects, such as observing, analyzing, investigating and experimenting various social phenomena in society, and have a deep understanding and obtained many regular things. However, it is not difficult to see from their works that American sociological theory is almost still in the stage of social philosophy. Although they created many definitions of sociological terms, they did not clearly put forward scientific social parameters and abstract concepts reflecting the similarities and differences of human social development; As well as scientific judgments describing different stages of human society, it is impossible to scientifically explain what society is and what it should be. This is mainly because they have not deeply discussed the original problems of people and society so far, but have focused on social phenomena. Therefore, their sociological theory has not been generally accepted by the world, even in the United States. Now "sociology is actually still in the process of determining its research object, methodology and application value"; (2) This is also the reason why American social management is not perfect. To achieve real scientific management, the United States should establish a new social order according to the' eternal laws of nature' of human society. (3) It is necessary to further strengthen the study of sociological theory, make it "truly perfect", establish a social mathematical model, and thus establish a strict sociological theoretical system. In this way, a unified social basic theory can be established and scientific management can become a reality.

Second, from the characteristics of sociology to see the reasons for the backwardness of sociology.

1. The influence of ordinary people's hallucinations on sociological intervention

Sociology is a basic social discipline that studies the general laws of the stability and development of human society, and its subject is people with thinking ability and a certain life span. The researcher is a member of the research object, and there is a case of "not knowing the true face of Lushan Mountain and being in this mountain". Especially the influence of utilitarian factors determines that the illusion of ordinary people interferes more with the development of sociology than with the development of natural science.

Sociology, as a science, must also follow the research methods similar to all other sciences. Sociology is based on the observation of social phenomena, describing and explaining them until they are predicted and influenced. In observation, in addition to the limitation of time and space, researchers will inevitably use their own positions, viewpoints and concepts to conduct research. Everyone's position, viewpoint and concept can't be completely consistent, and at the same time, it is influenced by the social inertia shown by the value orientation and thinking orientation of ordinary people in society, which makes it impossible for researchers to observe, analyze and think about social phenomena objectively as natural scientists do about natural phenomena. Therefore, it is natural that people are more likely to have fantasies about social phenomena. Therefore, the development of sociology is interfered by more people than natural science. From the history of natural science, we can know that in the process of its development, it was disturbed by the fantasies of ordinary people and paid a huge price. For example, the historical facts in the process of Heliocentrism replacing geocentric theory are an example. The utilitarian sociological research involving human beings is bound to be more strongly resisted by ordinary people's fantasies and social inertia. Even if researchers have correct judgments and conclusions on the observation of social phenomena, it is difficult to get social recognition for a time because of people's illusion, social interest preference and social inertia, or because of the different stages of social development. For example, in the mid-1950s, Mr. Ma Yinchu advocated population control according to China's economic development and population growth, and published a research report on China's population and development strategy < New Population Theory >; & gt Works like this were criticized by the siege and labeled as "Malthus China", which had a great influence on China society and was well known by people. Another example is that before and after the May 4th Movement, some people of insight in China saw that the essence of social development was human development and put forward the idea of "saving the country through education", which was also resisted and criticized. Now everyone knows the true meaning of "rejuvenating the country through science and education" and talent-oriented.

Another common problem caused by the illusion of ordinary people is to confuse individual phenomena (micro-state) with the state of social systems (macro-state). Although sociological research is based on the understanding and research of individual characteristics and laws, sociology mainly studies the general macro-laws of social system stability and development on the basis of this social micro-theory, providing theoretical basis for applied disciplines of social sciences such as politics, law, economics and education. The main sign of social stability is the stability of its social economy, social mechanism and social system, which requires social roles to be stable and efficient. Therefore, members of society are required to remain stable according to the distribution of life energy (4) to ensure the counterpoint of social roles. However, in this certain social distribution, who is in a certain dynamic state and who plays what kind of social role is uncertain and random. This is because from the day of birth, in addition to animal instinct, individuals must constantly learn to do mental work, use what they have learned to do physical work, in order to obtain the material resources needed for their own survival and development, and carry out non-stop exercise. In this constant movement, everyone's life energy is bound to change constantly. Therefore, it is uncertain and random who is in a certain dynamic state and what role to play to realize the corresponding social functions. People often regard the microscopic uncertainty and randomness of this individual state or individual social phenomenon in society as unpredictable and "unexpected" and seem to be "irregular", mistakenly regard this microscopic "irregularity" as social irregularity, and thus regard individual random phenomenon as universal or inevitable. If a reason is right (wrong) for an individual, it is considered right (wrong) for the whole. This "fallacy of synthetic reasoning" is mostly caused by this illusion of ordinary people. This illusion makes some people only satisfied with understanding the general experience level of society, and puts forward "what should society be" or "what is it" based on their intuitive experience of "everyone knows", which hinders people's in-depth discussion on the fundamental question of "why", directly affects people's discussion on the objective and universal scientific laws of the development and stability of human society, and has a great impact on the development of sociology.

Therefore, the characteristics of social stability are what the social statistical model refers to, "A stable society is dynamic and stable". It shows that the distribution of people in society is stable according to their living energy, that is, the percentage of people with various living energies in society is stable; However, the living conditions of micro-individuals are changeable. This is the key to ensure the stability of social roles. This kind of social dynamic stability can be expressed not only by the distribution map of social people's life energy, but also by the relative stability of social macro-parameters: social economy, social mechanism and social system. A certain amount of gas system in similar physical system (similar social system): In a gas system with a certain temperature (similar social productivity) and atmospheric pressure (similar social mechanism), in order to keep the system stable, the distribution of gas molecules (similar to human beings) according to energy (similar to life energy) must remain unchanged, that is, the percentage ratio of various energy molecules in the system must remain unchanged (equivalent to the role of social roles). But the energy of each specific molecule in the system is constantly changing. This phenomenon is equivalent to people's activities in society are constantly changing. Through this change, the social role is really in place, and the probability of role dislocation or inadequacy is minimized. Because the carrier of social role is people, and the function of social role is realized by specific people, it requires that people who do not meet the corresponding role norms should be replaced continuously according to the functional norms of social role, or that everyone should meet the changing functional norms required by the corresponding role through effective mechanisms such as training and self-study. That is to say, according to the norms of role function, the micro-state is constantly changing, so as to realize the "relative synchronization of human activities, contributions and acquired energy" of various roles or carriers of social organizations and institutions, and realize the stability of social organizations and their functions. The stability of social statistical laws fully reflects the uncertainty of individual or micro-state change (any individual change is absolute), which is complementary to the stability of social macro-state. The United States can be considered as an example of an approximately dynamic and stable society. A correct understanding of social micro-phenomena and macro-phenomena is not only crucial for the research and development of sociology, but also very important for understanding and analyzing the real society, guiding and managing the society.

2. Social phenomena are not completely repetitive and have an impact on sociology.

Observation and experiment are the basis of scientific research. Observations and experiments on natural phenomena are usually repeatable. Because social phenomena are not completely repeated, the observation and experiment of social phenomena cannot be completely repeated. Because the carrier of social phenomena is people with thinking ability and longevity, it is difficult for people to accurately observe society, obtain real scientific materials and make scientific explanations under the condition of underdeveloped society, so it is particularly difficult to put forward assumptions, models and theories that are indispensable for the research and development of sociology, which directly affects the development of sociology. Former sociologists mainly rely on their own wisdom, subjective impressions and people's ideological principles to summarize the limited social phenomena observed, establish sociological assumptions, models and theories, and make tendentious explanations. For example, Parsons' "structural functionalism" and Cosl's "conflict theory" and so on. Although these theories are one-sided and unscientific, they have played a positive role in the development of society and sociology and are also an inevitable process of the development of sociology. Similar to physics, before the wave-particle duality theory of light, Newton particle theory and Huygens wave theory were better than nothing. However, these subjective, imperfect, especially wrong assumptions, models and theories have also caused confusion and resistance to scientific development. This is true of natural science, especially the development of sociology. Assumptions, models and theories in natural science can be tested, revised and perfected through repeated experiments. Such as Thomson's atomic model to Bohr's atomic model. However, the revision and perfection of sociological assumptions, models and theories can only be at the expense of serious failure or lessons from blood and fire, and it takes a long period. For example, after liberation, China adhered to the theory of "taking class struggle as the key link" for more than 30 years, especially the "Cultural Revolution", which had a well-known impact on the social development of China. Deng Xiaoping's theory of "reform and opening up" was put forward after experiencing the cost of the "Cultural Revolution". In just over 20 years, it has created miraculous economic development. If the observation and experiment of social phenomena can be repeated; After liberation, Deng Xiaoping's theory of reform and opening up was put into practice. What will happen to our country in 50 years? This is not only a theoretical problem, but also a practical problem. However, the observation and experiment of social phenomena are not completely repetitive, and we can only summarize, analyze and evaluate this historical social phenomenon from a historical perspective. Another example is the occurrence of World War II. What made Hitler in Germany so bold and rampant? For example, neither the former Soviet Union nor Britain signed a non-aggression treaty with Germany before the war. Perhaps Germany was afraid to launch this war against the world at that time. The Soviet Union and Britain may not be attacked by Germany, but history will not repeat itself. This assumption can only be logically analyzed and reasoned from a historical perspective, and cannot be verified by practice. In order to overcome or reduce the negative impact of non-repetition of social phenomena on society and sociology, it is an effective method to advocate academic freedom, an academic atmosphere of "letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend" and a relaxed political environment before establishing a "truly perfect" sociological theory.

3. The influence of the development of natural science on sociology

Due to the underdevelopment of natural science, the traditional concept of "man lives in nature, but he is not a part of nature" has seriously affected people's research on the scientific attributes of the natural attributes of social laws and hindered the establishment of sociological scientific assumptions, models and theories. And so far, in some people's minds, the supernatural view still exists consciously or unconsciously, and it also affects some people's thoughts and behaviors subconsciously. For example, some religious and unscientific customs and concepts, as well as some people in religious thought groups or organizations, can't objectively and correctly understand and treat some regular phenomena in society and wantonly destroy the ecological environment on which we live. They don't understand or deny the natural attributes of human beings and the universal laws that people and other substances in the natural world follow together. For example, the law of conservation and transformation of energy, the system composed of a large number of individuals obeys the statistical law, and matter and energy are inseparable. Another example is that we put forward a "social statistical model". Some people say: How can society be described by a mathematical formula? For another example, some people still stick to the "utilitarian principle" or stick to the qualitative thinking mode in social research. The existence and activity forms of human beings and society cannot be consciously investigated and studied on the level of universal existence and movement of natural substances. These are all manifestations of supernatural views. Only in recent years, due to the development of high technology and social progress, as well as the painful lessons of nature's feedback (retaliation) deterrent to humanism, the natural attributes of human beings and society have been generally recognized by more people of insight in the world. Some sociologists have explored and studied this aspect, and governments and the masses in various countries have also paid attention to this issue. For example, the United Nations adopted the decision of sustainable social development, and the World Greenpeace was established; China CCTV has "Man and Nature" and "Science and Education" columns. In particular, the recently proposed "Scientific Outlook on Development" has attracted wide attention in China and other countries in the world, and so on. All this marks the transformation of the traditional supernatural view.

The change of supernatural view is not only a sign of social development, but also the result of the development of natural science. Without the development of natural science, it is impossible for human beings to truly understand the nature of human beings and society. The early totem worship of mankind and the emergence of various religious beliefs in the world are the products of underdeveloped natural sciences. In the past, sociological research developed slowly, and people's supernatural view existed, mainly because natural science was underdeveloped.

Therefore, in order to change the backward situation of sociological theory, we must learn from and apply the theoretical achievements of natural science, adopt modern scientific and technological methods and means, and establish a mathematical model reflecting social development and stability according to the particularity of people and society, so as to establish a strict sociological theoretical system. Therefore, sociologists must also have some knowledge of natural science. Because, in order to establish a social mathematical model, researchers must have two basic conditions besides high quality: first, they must have a comprehensive and profound understanding of the development and laws of natural science, reliable mathematical tools of natural science theory and sociology, and modern scientific means, such as computer simulation. Secondly, the social phenomena provided by sociological research can make people have a clear understanding of its regularity, and its regularity is clear enough to apply the principles and tools of natural science. Now, with the development of society, these two conditions have been basically met, and the social statistical model is a concrete exploration of the social mathematical model based on these two foundations. Careful analysis of these two articles actually depends on the development of natural science; From this perspective, sociology is backward relative to natural science, which is the law of nature in itself.

Sociology is still in an underdeveloped state, which is determined by the particularity of people and society. The development of sociology depends on the development of people and society and the development of natural science. Nowadays, due to the development of human beings, society and natural sciences, human beings have entered the high-tech era and have been able to provide rich social phenomena and natural science theories and tools needed for sociological research and development. On the other hand, the development of high technology has turned the earth into a "global village", and human survival and development are facing a series of problems that need to be solved urgently. Such as peace and development, resource protection and development, ecological environment, terrorism and international crime. There is an urgent need for a scientific and unified sociological theory to arm all mankind and guide the normal operation of all societies, so that mankind can truly operate normally in accordance with the' eternal law of nature' of human society and establish a new social order based on this law. American sociologist James Coleman pointed out: "The primitive foundation of society is dying out. If social science can't guide the creation of a new social foundation, society will inevitably be based on shallow ideas, and even rebuilding society will become a stupid and absurd action. It's like building skyscrapers without mechanical theory. Not only can it not meet the needs of residents, but it will eventually collapse completely. " (5) To this end, it is time to accelerate the research and development of sociology.

Therefore, if the period from 17 to the 20th century is the development period of natural science, then the century starting from 2 1 year is not only the century for the further development of natural science and technology, but also the century for the development of sociology. Let's welcome the arrival of the era of sociological development.