ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter, we considered the debates within the philosophy of science about how we can claim to ‘know’ something, and the appropriate way in which researchers can proceed to develop knowledge. There are debates within social science, too, about how we can ‘know’ things about the social world in particular, and whether we can base our explanations on what people themselves have to say about social experience – or, alternatively, whether the ‘reality’ of social life exists somewhere above and beyond the experience of individual citizens. Indeed, these are matters which were grappled with by the ‘founding fathers’ of sociology, so it is relevant and appropriate to start with them. First we will consider the macro sociology of Emile Durkheim (which has much in common with that of Karl Marx, despite carrying different political implications), and then the methodological writings of Max Weber, which are more concerned with individual experience.
