Blackwell Reference Online

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In sociology, subjectivity is often positioned as the opposite of objectivity, with objectivity being the ideal to which all empirical sociology should aspire. When Auguste Comte coined the phrase sociology, he had in mind the objective study of human behavior according to rational principles. A pertinent example of objective sociological analysis is that of Émile Durkheim, who argued that sociologists should analyze the internal (and impersonal) causes of social phenomena through the observation of concrete facts. Another notable example is, of course, the scholarship of Karl Marx, who also believed in a form of social scientism that went beyond the surface of social life through the analysis of concrete social facts. Durkheim distinguished this analysis from philosophical introspection and generalizations that would be unduly affected by subjective influences such as beliefs and values ( Giddens 1993 ; Crow 2005 ). Objective sociology has been criticized by those who believe that the observation of social phenomena cannot and should not be separated from our subjective perspective, since doing so entails a form of distortion and even repression. Here, introspection and philosophical reflection play an important role and social analysis proceeds through the chief methods of “imagination, psychological insight and historical interpretation” ( Mayer 1934 : 341). However, subjectivity ... log in or subscribe to read full text