Someone recently asked me, ‘is it an epistemological problem if sociologists tend to be more left politically?’. And if it is, if I know how to solve this problem.
My thoughts: If it does represent an epistemological problem, I have no idea how to solve it. I can’t imagine trying to push right-leaning persons into sociology. At the same time, we should consider that the definition of what science is and should be varies, especially across disciplines. In sociology for example, there is a strong sense of communality. Robert Merton wrote about scientific norms that would be necessary to support the scientific method (test, re-test), because alone the scientific method does not guarantee the most efficient and effective knowledge production and/or can be used to maintain power over others. One of these norms he called “communism” which we today label as “communality” because he did not at all mean a system of governance or centralized economic planning or the Communist Party. What he meant was that everyone should have equal access to participate in science. If everyone does not have equal access to participate in society, then they by default do not have equal access to science. Why should everyone have access? Because this leads to the maximum efficiency in scientific gains and breakthroughs, because everyone can contribute consistent with their abilities. Therefore, many sociologists would define science in a way that demands social and political change in order to support scientific progress (scientific progress means also economic productivity and abundance to provide for everyone’s needs). But trying to change societies in ways that maximize science opens the door for political agendas within science, which can increase bias in findings. Therefore, I am not sure if this is an epistemological problem. It may be that epistemologies correlate with ideologies, but that otherwise the epistemological approaches in sociology and political science (and related disciplines) that are among the broadest in science (ethnography, participant observation, econometrics and psychometrics, survey data research, interviews, ethnomethodology, etc.) are beneficial to collective knowledge.
Regarding the photo above: In the Tuskegee Experiment, the scientific method was followed carefully. But the scientific method alone does not guarantee that humans are safe from, and/or have equal access to participate in science. The participants were deceived and treatment for their disease was withheld. Unethical and abusive, yet scientific if we take the narrowest possible epistemology of the scientific method.
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Nate Breznau (February 6, 2026). Sociologists tend to be left politically. Is this a problem? Crowdid. Retrieved September 4, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/15n11