Understanding the Nature and Scope of Sociology: Definitions and Key Concepts, Study Guides, Projects, Research of Sociology

Download Understanding the Nature and Scope of Sociology: Definitions and Key Concepts and more Study Guides, Projects, Research Sociology in PDF only on Docsity! Sociology Assignment Topic:- Definition, Nature and Scope of Sociology Acknowledgement I would like to express my thanks of gratitude to my professor who gave me the opportunity to do this assignment on the topic “Definition, Nature and Scope of Sociology” which also helped me in doing a lot of research work that helped me to learn about so many new things and I am really thankful for it. MEANING The word ‘sociology’ owes its origin to the Latin word socius meaning ‘companion’ and the Greek word logy meaning ‘study of’. French philosopher and sociologist Auguste Comte invented the term ‘sociology’ in the year 1838. Considering India as a society, one can think of it in terms of cities, factories, schools, farms or prisons. One can also think of it in terms of politics, media or divinity. It is simple to connect all these factors. They can also be visualized as confined within the boundaries of Indian states and referred under the general heading of Indian society. Sociology is concerned with interaction itself. A social group is a system of social interaction. Sociology is interested in social relationships, not because they are economic, political, religious, legal or educational, but because they are social at the same time Some popular definitions of Sociology are: According to August Compte, “Sociology is the science of social phenomena, subject to natural and invariable laws, the discovery of which is the object of investigation”. According to Kingsley Davis, “Sociology is the general science of society, generalizes the issue.” According to Harry M. Johnson writes,” Sociology is the science that deals with social groups: their internal forms or modes of organization, the processes that tend to maintain or change these forms of organization, and the relations between groups.” According to Emile Durkheim, “Sociology is the study of social facts of collective behavior” through social institutions”. According to Max Weber, “Sociology as “the science which attempts the interpretative understanding of social action in order thereby to arrive at a causal explanation of its cause and effects”. According to F.H. Giddings, “sociology as “the science of social phenomena” According to Alex Inkels, “Sociology is the study of systems of social action & of their interrelations of human beings.” According to Tonnies & Mack Young, “Sociology is the study of study of social aspects humans living together of human life”. According to Simmel, “Sociology is the study of social groups on the basis of social interaction”. According to Eitzen and Zinn, “Sociology is the discipline that attempts to understand the forces outside us that shape our lives, interests, and personalities.” According to Farley, “Sociology is a systematic approach to thinking about, studying, and understanding society, human social behavior, and social groups.” According to Henslin, “Sociology is the scientific study of society and human behavior.” According to Levin, “The Sociological perspective is a view of human behavior that focuses on the patterns of relationships among individuals rather than solely on the individuals themselves.” According to Newman, “Sociology is a liberating perspective. It forces us to look at the social processes that influence our thoughts, perceptions, and actions, and helps us see how social change occurs and the impact we can have on others.” According to R.E. Park and F.W. Burgess, “Sociology is the science of collective behavior.” NATURE & SCOPE Nature of Sociology: In nature of sociology we investigate, what type of subject Sociology is? Is sociology a science, or an art or what? To answer this question Robert Bierstadt enlisted the following characteristics of sociology in his book “The Social Order”: 1. Independent Science: Sociology is an independent science. Sociology like any other discipline have its own area of study and not fully dependent on other discipline. It is an Autonomous discipline, have their own field of study, boundary and method. 2. Social Science and not a Physical Science: Sociology is a social science not a physical science. Social sciences focus on various aspect of human society while physical sciences deal with natural phenomena. Thus, Sociology is a social science as it deals with man and his social activities. It is generally concerned with human and their behavior unlike physics, maths etc. deals with social universe. 3. Categorical and not a Normative Discipline or Science: Sociology is a categorical and not a normative discipline. Sociology is value-free. It is only interested in ‘what is’ and not ‘what should be’ or ‘ought to be’. It is silent about the question of what out to be not value based. 4. Pure Science and not Applied Science: Sociology is pure science and not an applied science. As a Pure science it is only interested in acquisition of knowledge, it has nothing to do with application of that knowledge. Like Physics is a pure science while engineering is its application. Applied Science aim is to apply the science to use in political use. 5. Generalizing Science and not Particularizing Science: Sociology is a generalizing science and not a particularizing science. Sociology is not interested in particular events rather it studies events in a general way. Example: History study French Revolution but Sociology will be interested in revolutions in general. Sociology is a general science and not a special social science. Like Economy or Political Science, Sociology does not focus on only one aspect of human activity. As it has to deal with society it includes all aspects of human life in a general way. 6. Both Rational and Empirical science: Sociology is both a rational and an empirical science. It studies the social phenomena in scientific way. It is based on reason (logic), observation and experimentation. Thus, we can say that sociology is a science of general nature and falls in the category of social sciences. ______________ Id at 16. Bibliography Wikipedia.com Max Weber, Basic concepts in Sociology