The Ulitimate Goals of Sociology

The immediate goal of sociology is to acquire knowledge about society like all the sciences. However, sociology is not content with descriptions, exhibitions and analysis. It has a more remote and ultimate purpose. Robert Bierstedt's views are meaningful in this regard. He says "The final questions to which sociology addresses itself are those that have to do with the nature of human experience and this earth and the succession of societies over the long centuries of human existence..............What are the factors responsible for the disintegration of one social structure, like that of the medieval world, and the coming into being of another? Do human societies like the individuals who comprise them, grow old after a while, and very and finally disappear from the face of the earth? Is there an ebb and flow in the affairs of men, a systole and diastole of human history? These too are problems of sociology... But some day, if sociology, through its intimate analysis of the dynamics of society, can archive some understanding of problems of this kind, and contribute to their resolution, it will fulfil its initial promise and its ultimate destiny. In brief, as Samuel Koenig has pointed out the ultimate aim of sociology is " to improve man's adjustment to life by developing objective knowledge concerning social phenomena which can be used to deal effectively with social problems".