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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

Comment on the reasons why neo-idealists and symbolic interactionists are critical of ‘positivism’ in Sociology

  • UPSC 2009
  • Sociology as a Science

Positivism, in the tradition of Comte and Durkheim, treats society as an external, objective reality — a set of "social facts" that exist independently of the individuals studying or living within them, to be observed and explained through general laws in the manner of the natural sciences.

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions.

What the full answer covers

  • Neo-Idealism: The Naturwissenschaften–Geisteswissenschaften Distinction
  • Symbolic Interactionism: Mead and Blumer
  • The Shared Objection to Positivism
  • A Point of Difference Worth Noting

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