TEACHING SOCIOLOGY AS A SCIENCE - A LABORATORY REINFORCEMENT OF THE SOCIOLOGICAL HERITAGE

Sociology was founded in the nineteenth century as a discipline for the scientific study of social order. Recently this scientific foundation has been attacked by both liberals and conservatives. The attacks have left the discipline vulnerable both inside and outside academia. This paper argues that other sciences have faced similar problems. By following their example and by teaching sociology courses as laboratory sciences, we are most likely to legitimate the knowledge of the discipline and overcome public and student skepticism. Improvements in computer software offer a growing number of laboratory options for classroom use, including surveys of students, which permit scientific demonstrations of social facts. Although such surveys are not new to the discipline, they should be used more frequently to overcome students' skepticism and to motivate students to pursue independent social investigations.