... be rather than what is. The question is whether value judgements unavoidably made in the course of research should not stop sociologists from trying to be objective and also can sociology be value free. Value free is where there is an absence of moral or political values entering the research process. Sociologist views on this differ. Examples of those who agree are Max Weber. Those who disagree and think it is impossible to be value free in sociology are Gouldner. Max Weber argued that sociologist's values should be kept out of their research, and they should not make value judgements - judgements about right or wrong. Max Weber recognised that values would influence the choice of topics to study. He argued that the sociologist had to have some way of choosing from the almost infinite numbers of possible areas of social life that could be studied. Weber believed that 'value relevance' would ...

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