Sociology in the Mirror: Science, Interpretive Art, or Epistemological Battleground?
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Introduction: The debate over whether sociology is or can be a science traverses the entire history of the discipline and remains open today. Objective: To critically examine the epistemological foundations of sociology and argue in favor of its scientific status, acknowledging its specificity relative to the natural sciences. Method: Argumentative theoretical essay based on critical analysis of primary and secondary sources from Western epistemological and sociological traditions. Results: Three constitutive tensions of sociology as a science are identified: the explanation-understanding relation, objectivity-reflexivity, and the universality-historicity of social knowledge. Conclusion: Sociology is a science in the full sense, though sui generis, whose rigor derives not from imitating natural sciences but from the logical consistency of its arguments, the systematicity of its methods, and the self-critical capacity of its practitioners.
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