1. What is science for you? How has been your relationship with science?

Science is the study of the natural world and uses systematic methods like experiments and
observations to explain theories. From grade school to college, I’ve been exposed to science education
which helped me a lot to understand the physical world. Most of its basic concepts are also useful for
me in my everyday life like cooking, commuting, cleaning the house, etc. I kind of enjoy how we drew
conclusions objectively from the science experiments that we have done in our high school classes. That
kind of activity is challenging because you must come up with the right answer. During my college years,
I haven’t taken up as many science courses since they’re not really associated with my degree. But there
are those electives that I enjoyed where they mention science. My undergraduate degree is BS Interior
Design and we’ve also relate our topics such as sustainability and material selection to science. I must
admit that I am not really a fan of science, which also describes why I chose my course, but I still miss
doing those experiments in lab.

2. One insight about the Social Sciences from the readings/Youtube video

Based for the reading titled, “Why Study Social Science” by The Monkey Cage and the YouTube video
titled, “Sociology & the Scientific Method: Crash Course Sociology #3” by CrashCourse, I realized that
Social Sciences are deeper than the general Science. Science uses positivism to prove a theory which
only understand the phenomenon on a physical and surface level reason. Social Sciences delve into the
deep reasons how the societies work and that’s what amazes me the most. I specifically want to
reiterate the thought that I learned from the reading that fields under it should have been funded more
because as much as “hard” sciences and medicine do, Social Science contribute to the betterment of the
society by knowing how and why people behave or react on particular societal events. Social Sciences
are as important and the knowledge about its relevance to the current issues should also be taught to
the public.

3. One Social Science-y insight on Martial Law/the Marcos comeback (please put the title of the
session/talk that you attended)

I attended the book launching of False Nostalgia by Dr. JC Punongbayan on February 24, 2023. And from
there, I’ve seen the efforts of people behind the successful launch on fighting disinformation. Social
Science can explain how the phenomena of spreading fake news in social media occur and why people
believe them. It is really devastating how the Marcoses manipulate people by fabricating history and
neglecting accountabilities for all the damage they’ve done to our country during the Martial Law. I
personally believe that lack of education is also one of the root causes of spreading disinformation. The
way people instantly believe what they saw on the internet could have been prevented through proper
education. That’s the first thing most people in our country couldn’t attain due to poverty. But there are
also instances where privilege and “educated” people still support this activity of spreading
disinformation and that is the saddest part, having the advantage and power to do the right thing and
educate people with the facts but still chooses not to due to personal interests.

Science – investigating the physical, natural world

 Any practice that uses a systematic method of observation to gain knowledge (scientific
method)
  Come up with question about the world and develop testable theory about how you could
answer that question
 Develop and test theory by gathering empirical evidence (verifiable information collected in
systematic way)

Sociology – explores the social word

 Can use scientific method

 Relies on empirical data
 Graph
 desire to understand moral or political questions about how societies work.

 Auguste Comte – founder of sociology

 Positivism
o scientific method is rooted in the philosophy known as positivism
o phenomena can be studied through direct observation, and that these observations can be
pulled together into theories or facts that can help us understand how the world works.
o a ‘positive’ theory is one that’s objective and fact-based, whereas a ‘normative’ theory is
subjective and value-based.
 Not everything you want to know about society is going to fit into observable, measurable
categories.
 if you’re studying human behavior, you can’t control the environment or how your subject interacts
with that environment.
 Because the fact is, subjects might change how they behave if they know they’re being observed.
 the influence of an observer on the behavior of her participants is known as the Hawthorne Effect!
 another problem with positivist sociology is that not all social facts can be applied to all people, in all
time periods.
 subjective – an idea that’s built on your own experiences and feelings.
 In sociology, we talk about subjectivity as the meaning that people give their own lived experiences.
 there’s plenty of room in sociology for subjectivity – especially, for values.
o Values are the ideas a person has about what’s good, and the attitudes they hold about how
the world works.

Three types of sociological inquiry:

1. Positivist sociology
o the study of society based on systematic observations of social behavior.
o “objective” is the key word.
o sociologists must set aside their own values and beliefs to approach their work as neutral
observers, and use empirical evidence to answer questions about how the social world
works
o Quantitative research is the study of observable relationships in the world, using
mathematical or statistical methods.
 i. descriptive data describes facts relevant to the question you’re researching
o qualitative data – or information that’s not in numerical form.
i. Qualitative data try to illustrate, or characterize.
ii. use descriptions of the world,
iii. gathered through interviews, questionnaires,
iv. and first-hand observation.
2. Interpretative sociology is the study of society that focuses on the meanings that people attach
to their social world.
o Interpretative sociologists approach their subjects with the aim of seeing the world from
their subject’s perspective, rather than through quantitative data.
o there are fewer statistics involved in this type of research.
o interpretative sociologists often use interviews or face-to-face interactions with their
subjects to understand the world.
3. Critical Sociology
o argument for value-driven research, rather than value-free research
o study of society that focuses on the need for social change.