SOCIOLOGY

 Objectives:
 To give a basic understanding of sociology.
 To understand the nature of scientific study of Sociology.
 Introduction:
Sociology studies the behaviour of human beings in society. It may, however, be
rightly pointed out that other social sciences, such as Political Science, Economics,
History, etc., do the same. Sociology studies this social aspect of man. Sociology
differs from other social sciences in this particular respect. No other social science
takes the study of social relationship as it? central theme. The focus of interest of all
other social sciences is different.
In the family of social sciences, Sociology is comparatively a new entrant. But
because of its dealing with social problems, social relationships and social interactions
the importance of the study of this subject has considerably increased. It has
considerably developed in methodology, scope and approach. Attempts are now being
made to study every social problem scientifically and objectively, eliminating
subjectivity to the extent possible a distinctive way of examining human interactions.
Sociology is the systematic study of social behavior and human groups. It focuses
primarily on the influence of social relationships upon people’s attitudes and behavior
and on how societies are established and change. As a field of study sociology has a
very broad scope. It deals with families, gangs, business firms, computer networks,
political parties, schools, religions, and labor unions. It is concerned with love,
poverty, conformity, technology, discrimination, illness, alienation, overpopulation
and community.
The purpose of sociological study is not, however, simply to describe social
relationships, but also to analyses them and to discriminate between their specific
forms, varieties and patterns. The sociologists are expected to look ahead and to
suggest guideposts for social action in response to the changes which give rise to
social problems.
In the 19th century a French philosopher named Auguste Comte (1798 – 1857) gave
the name ‘Sociology’ to this new social science. ‘Sociology’ is composed of two
words: Socius meaning companion or associate, and logos meaning word.

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 Thus, the term formed from these two words means talking about society, as Geology
(geos meaning earth) means talking about the earth, Biology (bios meaning life)
means talking about life and Anthropology (anthropos meaning man) means talking
about man. Socius is a Latin word and Logos is a Greek word, and the name of our
discipline is thus a hybrid offspring of two languages.
SOCIOLOGY

LATIN SOCIUS + LOGOS GREEK WORD

WORD

SOCIETY + SCIENCE
In simple word, Sociology means the scientific study of society.
 Definitions:
 According to Ward- “Sociology is science of society”.
 According to Giddins -“Sociology is scientific study of society.
 According to Sorokin -sociology is a study first of all the relationship and
correlations between various classes... second between the social and non social
aspects of life and third it studies general characteristics common to all classes
of society.
 According to Ogburn -“Sociology is concerned with the study of social life
and its relations to the factors of culture, natural environment, heredity and
group.”
 E.S. Bogardus- “Sociology may be defined as the study of the ways in which
social experiences function in developing, maturing and repressing human
beings through inter-personal stimulations.”
From all these definitions it becomes clear that sociology is concerned with
social relationships and studies society, human interactions, inter-personal and
intra-personal relations. It tries to study scientifically social institutions,
organizations and systems. These definitions also make it amply clear that
sociologists view the subject differently and that there is no unanimity in this
regard.
 Nature of Sociology:
There is a continuing controversy about the nature of sociology. According to some
sociologists it is a science, while others strongly refute this claim.
 What is a scientific study?
For a scientific study it is essential that the whole study should be systematic and
without any subjectivity. A scientist is supposed to have a clear vision and a pointed
approach. He should have capacity to record unbiased decisions and properly classify
data’s. He should also have vision to collect only such data as is useful for his study.
He should conclude his findings after verification of data’s and not on morality or
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certain pre-supposed philosophies, nations and ideas. The most important element of a
scientific study is that a scientist should deal with bear facts and not with ideal
situations. Thus this study should be both factual and systematic. Then another
element is that its results should have universal application. Then in a scientific study
there should be cause effect relationship and it should also be capable of making
certain safe predictions.
 Is Sociology A Science?
Now a question arises as to whether sociology is science or not. Those who support
the cause of sociology as science plead that a present day sociologists must be
methodological. He must base his conclusions on impartially collected, analyzed and
interpreted data. He should also be willing to get his data tested anywhere to
established its validity. They also argue that like natural scientists, Sociologists are
concerned with hard facts and not with ideal situations. They try to analyses facts of
social life as these are. They also believe that there are many social facts and theories
which the sociologists have developed after hard labor and these are universally
applicable, under similar circumstances. They also point out that like natural scientists,
the sociologists are very much concerned with cause effect relationship e.g. social
stratification and social disorganizations are the outcome of certain causes, which have
their effects as well. As with the natural scientists, so with the sociologists, it is equal
true that like the former the latter can make some safe predictions. They thus argue
that “sociology is a science which attempts the interpretative under-standing of social
action in order to arrive at a casual explanation of its causes and effects.”
 Sociology- Not a Science:
there is other side of the picture as well. Many believe that society is not a perfect
science. Like the results of natural sciences, the results obtained by social scientists
cannot be generalized and these also cannot be same under all circumstances and at all
places. The conditions always differ from society to society and social changes are
unavoidable. These are also very complex. Then it is said that each human beings has
his own limitations and he provides information keeping those limitations into
consideration. He is not prepared to disclose secrets and thus the information provided
is not factual. It is also said that the many situations are not within the control of
sociologists and repeat experimentation is almost impossible.
Each sociologist has subjective approach to the problem under investigation. There is
no stage of investigation in which there is no subjectivity. Each one has some secrets
which he is not prepared to disclose to the investigators. Unlike natural scientist, a
sociologist has no laboratory facilities and also has no control over material to be
experimented i.e. human beings. Not only this, but it is not possible to repeat
experiments. It is more or less not possible to make the safe predictions because nature
of social problems with which the sociologists are not the same all over the world
What is real nature of sociology about this controversy is likely to continue.
According to Robert Stead Sociology is a social science and not a natural science,
because it deals with human beings and social phenomena. It is positive and not
normative science because it studies social phenomena as it is and not as it ought to
be. It is pure and not applied science because it studies underlying factors of a social
phenomenon. Sociology is an abstract and not a concrete science because it studies
society in general. It deals with society, which in itself is abstract and as such the
subject cannot be concrete. It is a science of generalization and not that of
particularization because it studies a social problem in general and not in particular
way. It does not study a social phenomenon from a particular angle. It is an empirical
or rational science because it tries to follow logical method of data collection.

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 SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY
 Introduction:
The term Sociology was coined by Auguste Comte, a French philosopher, in 1839. The
teaching of sociology as a separate discipline started in 1876 in the United States, in 1889
in France, in 1907 in Great Britain, after World War I in Poland and India, in 1925 in
Egypt and Mexico, and in 1947 in Sweden.
Sociology is the youngest of all the Social Sciences. The word Sociology is derived from
the Latin word ‘societies’ meaning ‘society’ and the Greek word ‘logos’ are meaning
‘study or science’. The etymological meaning of ‘sociology’ is thus the ‘science of
society’.In other words, Sociology is the study of man’s behaviour in groups or of the
inter-action among human beings, of social relationships and the processes by which
human group activity takes place.
 Scope of Sociology:

If the social being etc are changing then it is difficult to find its scope. Due to its changing
nature it is difficult to say what the scope is moreover we cannot even define sociology.
Scope means the subject matter or the areas of study or the boundaries of a subject. What
we have to study in a particular subject is known as its scope. Every science has its own
field of inquiry. It becomes difficult to study a science systematically unless its boundary
or scope or boundaries. But there is no one opinion about the scope of Sociology.
However, there are two main schools of thought regarding the scope of Sociology:

1) The Specialistic or Formalistic school

SCOPE OF

SOCIOLOGY

2) The Synthetic school

There is a good deal of controversy about the scope of Sociology between the two
schools.
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 Specialistic or Formalistic School:
The name is so because sociology is a special science to study society. George
Simmel is the supporter. Society has form and content – according to him and there
can be no society without form and content and they can be separated i.e. form and
content. He says sociology only studies the form but not the content. Eg.
Competition – social studies the factor, result and this is the form the area of
competition is the content and it is not studied. Sociology does not study the
content because there are other social sciences which study the contents. Eg. By
him Tables 3 types of glass of similar forms fill them with different types of
content but this does not change the form of the glass. Then now you take one glass
and fill it by 3 different liquids one by one. Now the form does not change and the
content too does not change and therefore these forms and contents can be
separated. Similarly sociology studies the form and if there is a change in the
content there is no change in the form and thus in the study.
 Simmel’s view:
According to Simmel, the distinction between Sociology and other special sciences
is that it deals with the same topics as they from a different angle—from the angle
of different modes of social relationships.
Social relationships, such as competition, subordination, division of labour etc. are
exemplified in different spheres of social life such as economic, the political and
even the religious, moral or artistic but the business of Sociology is to disentangle
these forms of social relationships and to study them in abstraction. Thus according
to Simmel, Sociology is a specific social science which describes, classifies,
analyses and delineates the forms of social relationships.
 Max Weber’s view:
Max Weber also makes out a definite field for Sociology. According to him, the
aim of Sociology is to interpret or understand social behaviour. But social
behaviour does not cover the whole field of human relations. Indeed not all human
inter-actions are social.
For instance, a collision between two cyclists is in itself merely a natural
phenomenon, but their efforts to avoid each other or the language they use after the
event constitute true social behaviour. Sociology is thus, according to him,
concerned with the analysis and classification of types of social relationships.
 Von Wiese’s view:
According to Von Wiese, the scope of Sociology is the study of forms of social
relationships. He has divided these social relationships into many kinds.
 Vierkandt’s view:
He defined social as ,Social is the study of the ultimate form of mental and psychic
relationship which link one to another’. He gives important to emotional
relationship.
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  Tonnie’s view:
He believes Sociology to be pure science. He said that Sociology is pure and
independent. He divided society into two groups 1. Society and 2. Community. He
said society is urban society whereas community is rural society and in
Sociological terms he called it as Gescelschaft and Gescelschaft.
Criticism:
Sociology is a science and it’s new in origin and so not a pure science.
1) P.A. Sorokin says that it isn’t necessary to say it is a science and not correct
to study scientifically.
2) What is Society? There are difference aspects in society ans all these
combined make society. These different social sciences are studied in
different ways or by other social sciences. These social sciences are
specialized in studying these aspects.
3) George Simmel separated forms from content but this too is not correct. It
may be correct in other sciences such as the physical sciences. If the form
change the content also changes. There is a difference in the ideas of the
supporters of this group or school.
 Synthetic school:
The school of thought believes that sociology should study society as a whole and
not confine itself to the study of only limited social problems. The synthetic school
wants to make sociology a synthesis of the social sciences or a general science,
Durkheim, Hob-house and Sorokin subscribe to this view.
 Durkheim’s view:
"Sociology is a science of collective representation". He believes in the collection
of people in society. When there is collection there must be wider scope for
collective representation there must be majority of people hence it will be social
facts. Since it has a social fact they are instrumental in guiding and controlling the
behavior of society. (Those collective symbols accepted by the majority and what
they say become social facts. These will help). These social facts will later become
a part of society. When we study a collective representation the whole picture of
society comes before us.
 Sorokin’s view:
"Sociology is the generalizing science". He is the profounder of systematic study.
In his book 'contemporary sociology' he observes that social is a general science. It
studies the general characteristics of the society of the relationship of social and
non-social phenomena. He constructs a formula to describe his theory.
Sociology- a, b, c
Economics - a, b, c, d, e, f
Political Science - a, b,c,g,h,i

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 Religion - a, b, c, L, M, N
Constitutional - a, b, c, n, y, Z
A, b, c, are found in all social sciences.
 Hobhouse’s view:
"Social is the synthesis of various social sciences". He means social is a general
study which studies society as a whole from all aspects i.e. the combination of all
social sciences – Sociologist must pursue his study from a particular part of society
(social friend). When he studies thus he must interconnect his result with the results
arrived from other social sciences and then he should interpret society as a whole.
 Ginsberg’s view:
Ginsberg has summed up the chief functions of sociology as follows.
Firstly, Sociology seeks to provide a classification of types and forms of social
relationships especially of those which have come to be defined institutions and
associations.
Secondly, it tries to determine the relation between different parts of factors of
social life, for example, the economic and political, the moral and the religious, the
moral and the legal, the intellectual and the social elements.
Thirdly, it endeavours to disentangle the fundamental conditions of social change
and persistence and to discover sociological principles governing social life.
 Conclusion:
Thus, the scope of Sociology is very wide. It is a general science but it is also a
special science. As a matter of fact, the subject matter of all social sciences is
society. What distinguishes them from one another is their viewpoint.
Thus economics studies society from an economic viewpoint; political science
studies it from political viewpoint while history is a study of society from a
historical point of view Sociology alone studies social relationships and society
itself. MacIver correctly remarks, What distinguishes each from each is the
selective interest.
Green also remarks, “The focus of attention upon relationships makes Sociology a
distinctive field, however closely allied to certain others it may be.” Sociology
studies all the various aspects of society such as social traditions, social processes,
social morphology, social control, social pathology, effect of extra-social elements
upon social relationships etc.
Actually, it is neither possible nor essential to delimit the scope of sociology
because, this would be, as Sprott put it, “A brave attempt to confine an enormous
mass of slippery material into a relatively simple system of pigeon holes.”