Sociology is often considered a “soft science”.

Models for our understanding of the world tend to be considered “theories”, rather than laws.

This can be contrasted with other hard sciences, such as physics, astronomy, or chemistry, where laws tend to be better replicated across time and space.

However, even the predictions of these hard science laws can have stochastic error, defined as unpredictability in measurements or predictions, often due to inherent uncertainty or external factors that cannot be fully controlled.

Even Newton’s laws of motion, which describes the relationship between the motion of an object and forces acting on it, has some stochastic error embedded in it.

In general, the more complexity there is in a phenomena – the greater the number of variables and interactions between them, the harder it will be to generalize theories into hard laws, and the less power a model will yield in predicting an accurate measure of a phenomenon.

Biology falls somewhere in between the hard sciences and sociology. Diagnostics from doctors can often vary from one doctor to another, due to different interpetrations of the mechanisms, conditions of human anatomy.

Sociology’s theories are harder to generalize across all scenarios, due to the more complex nature of its phenomena. There are more variables to account for (to avoid “omitted variable bias”), more reverse causality – also known as bidirectional effect of two variables, there are also many variables, cultural or psychological, that are not always easy to measure.

It is also difficult to conduct studies with a control and experimental group without benefitting from the circumstances of a natural experiment or having to manipulate natural human interactions. After all, in sociology, humans are the object of study, as well as the ones doing the study.

Despite all this, sociology still provides a systematic study of the structure and behavior of the society through observation, experimentation, and the testing of theories with evidence and data.

There is a logical, methodological aspect to it, and there are patterns that can be modeled mathematically, even with error.

To replace the interpretation of societal phenomena by superstitious or dogmatic perspectives, sociology will have to continue to evolve in its ability to explain and solve real world problems.

The development of sciences have tended to feed off one another. Sociology potentially stands to benefit from advancements in biology, psychology, artificial intelligence, smart cities, by improving access to data and leading to more accurate theories about the way the world works.