SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY

Every science has its own areas of inquiry. It becomes difficult for any one to study a science systematically unless its boundaries are demarcated and scope determined precisely. Unfortunately, there is no consensus on the part of sociologist with regard to the scope of sociology. V. F. Calberton comments. "since sociology is so elastic a science, it is difficult to determine just where its boundaries began and end, where sociology becomes social psychology and where social psychology becomes sociology, or where economic theory becomes sociological doctrine or biological theory becomes sociological theory something, which is impossible to decide.

However there are two main schools of thought regarding the scope of sociology:

1. The specialistic or formalistic school
2. The synthetic school.

Major Concerns of Sociology (Subject-Matter of Sociology)

Ever science the beginning of sociology, sociologists have shown a great concern in man and the dynamic of society. The emphasis has been oscillating between man and society. "Sometimes the emphasis was on man in society, at other times, it was on man in society. But at no stage of its development, man as an individual was its focus of attention. On the contrary, sociology concentrated heavily on society and its major units and their dynamics. It has been striving to analyse the dynamics of the society in terms of organised patterns of social relations. It may be said that sociology seeks to find explanations for three basic questions: How and and why societies emerge? How and why societies persist? How and why societies change?

An all-embracive and expanding science like sociology is growing at a fast rate no doubt. It is quite natural that sociologists have developed different approaches from the time to time in their attempts to enrich its study. Still it is possible to identify some which constitute the subject matter of sociology on which there is little disagreement among the sociologists. Such topics and areas broadly constitute the field of sociology. A general outline of the fields of sociology on which there is considerable agreement among sociologists could be given here.

Firstly, the major concern of sociology is sociological analysis. It means the sociologist seeks to provide an analysis of human society and culture with a sociological perspective. He evinces his interest in the evolution of society and tries to reconstruct the major stages in the evolutionary process. An attempt is also made "to analyse the factors and forces underlying historical transformations of society". Due importance is given to the scientific method that is adopted in the sociological analysis.

Secondly, sociology has given sufficient attention to the study of primary units of social life. In this area, it is concerned with social acts and social relationships, individual personalty, groups of all varieties, communities (urban, rural, and tribal), associations, organisations and populations.

Thirdly, sociology has been concerned with the development, structure and function of a wide variety of basic social institutions such as the family and kinship, property and religion, economic, political, legal, educational and scientific, recreational and welfare, aesthetic and expressive institutions.

Fourthly, no sociologist can afford to ignore the fundamental social processes that play a vital role. The social process such as co-operation and competition, accommodation and assimilation, social conflict including war and revolution; communication including opinion formation expression and change; social differentiation and stratification, socialisation and indoctrination, social control and deviance including crime, suicide, social integration and social change assume prominence in sociological studies.

Fifthly, sociology has placed high premium on the method of research also. Contemporary sociology has tended to become more and more rational and empirical rather than philosophical and idealistic. Sociologists have sought the application of scientific method in social researches. Like a natural scientist, a sociologist senses a problem for investigation. He then tries to formulate it into a researchable proposition. After collecting the data he tries to establish connections between them. He finally arrives at meaningful concepts, propositions and generalisations

Sixthly, sociologists are concerned with a task of "formulating concepts, propositions and theories". "Concepts are abstract from concrete experience to represent a class of phenomena". For example, terms such as social stratification, differentiation, conformity, deviance etc., represent concepts. A proposition "seeks to to reflect a relationship between different categories of data or concepts". For example "lower-class youths are more likely to commit crimes than middle-class youths". This preposition is debatable. It may be proved to be false. To take another example, it could be said that "taking advantage of opportunities of higher education and occupational mobility leads to the weakening of the ties of kinship and territorial loyalties". Though this preposition sounds debatable, it has been established after careful observations, inquiry and collection of relevant data. Theories go beyond concepts and propositions. "Theories represent systematically related propositions that explain social phenomena". Sociological theories are mostly rooted in factual than philosophical. The sociological perspective becomes more meaningful and fruitful when one tries to derive insight from concepts, propositions and theories.

Finally, in the present era of explosion of knowledge sociologists have ventured to make specialisations also.Thus, today good number of specialised fields of inquiry are emerging out. Sociology of knowledge, sociology of history, sociology of literature, sociology of culture, sociology of religion, sociology of family etc., represent such specialised fields., The field of sociological inquiry is so vast that any student of sociology equipped with genius and rich sociological imagination can add new dimensions to the discipline of sociology as a whole.

Sociology is Both a Rational and an Empirical Science

There are two broad ways of approach to scientific knowledge. One, known as empiricism, is the approach that emphasises experience and the facts that result from observation and experimentation. The other, known as rationalism, stresses reason and the theories that result from logical inference.

The empiricist collects facts; the rationalist co-ordinates and arranges them. Theories and facts are required in the construction of knowledge. In sociological inquiry both are significant. A theory unsubstantiated by hard, solid facts are nothing more than an opinion. Facts, by themselves, in their isolated character, are meaningless and useless. As Immanuel Kant said, "theories without facts are empty and facts without theories are blind". All modern sciences, therefore, avail themselves of both empirical and rational resources. Sociology is not an exception.

Sociology is a General Science and not a Special Social Science

The aria of inquiry of sociology is general and not specialised. It is concerned with human interaction and human life in general. Other sciences like political science, history, economics etc, also study man and human interaction, but not all about human interaction. They concentrate their attention on certain aspects of human interaction and activities and specialise themselves in those fields. Accordingly, economics specialises itself in the study of economic activities, political science concentrates on political activities and so on. Sociology of course, does not investigate economic, regions, political, legal, moral or any other special kind of phenomena in relation human life and activities as such. It only studies human activities in a general way. This does not however, mean that sociology is the basic social science nor does it imply sociology is the general social science. Anthropology and social psychology often claim themselves to be general social sciences.

Sociology is a Genaralising and not a Particularising or Individualising Science

Sociology tries to find out the general laws or principles about human interactions and association, about the nature, form, content and structure of human groups and societies. It does not study each and every event that takes place in society. It is not possible also. It tries to make generalisation on the basis of the study of some select events. For example, a sociologists makes generalisations about the nature of secondary groups. He may conclude that secondary groups are comparatively bigger in size, less stable, not necessarily spatially limited, more specialised, and so on. This, he does, not by examining all the secondary groups but by observing and studying few.

Sociology is Relatively an Abstract Science and not a Concrete Science

This does not mean that sociology is an art and not a science. Nor does it mean, it is unnecessarily complicated and unduly difficult. It only means that Sociology is not interested in concrete manifestation of human events. It is more concerned with the form of human events and their patterns. For example, sociology is not concerned with particular wars and revolutions but with war and revolution in general, as social phenomena, as types of social conflict. Similarly, sociology does itself to the study of this society or that particular society or social organization, or marriage, or religion, or group and so on. It is in this simple sense that sociology is an abstract not a concrete science.

Sociology is a Pure Science and not an Applied Science

A distinction is often made between pure sciences and applied sciences. The main aim of pure sciences is the acquisition of knowledge and it is not bothered weather the acquired knowledge is useful or can be put to use. On the other hand, the aim of applied science is to apply the acquired knowledge into life and to put it to use. Each pure science may have its own applied field. For example, physics is a pure science and engineering is its applied field. Similarly the pure sciences such as economics, political science, history, etc., have their applied field such as administration, diplomacy, social work etc. Each pure science may have more than one application.

Sociology is a pure science, because the immediate aim of sociology is the acquisition of knowledge about human society, not utilisation of knowledge. Sociologists never determine questions of public policy and do not recommend legislators what laws should be passed or replaced. But the knowledge acquired by a sociologist is of great help to administrator, the legislator, the diplomat, the teacher, the foreman, the supervisor, the social worker and citizen. But sociologists themselves do not apply the knowledge to life and use, as a matter of their duty and profession.

Sociology is a Categorical and not a Normative Dicipline

Sociology "confines itself to statements about what is, not what should be or ought to be". "As a science, sociology is necessarily silent about questions of value. It does not make any kind of value-judgements. Its approach is neither moral nor moral but amoral. It is ethically neutral. It cannot decide the directions in which sociology ought to go. It makes no recommendations on maters of social policy or legislation's or programme. But it does not mean that sociological knowledge is useless and serves no propose. It only means that sociology as a discipline cannot deal with problems of good and evil, right and wrong, and moral or immoral.

Sociology is a Social Science not a Physical Science.

Sociology belongs to the family of social sciences and not to the family of physical sciences. As a social science it concentrates its attention on man, his social behavior, social activities and social life. As a member of the family of social sciences it is intimately related to other social sciences like history, political science, economics, psychology, anthropology etc. The fact that sociology deals with the Social universe distinguishes from astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology, mathematics and other physical sciences.

Sociology is an Independent Science.

Sociology has now emerged into an independent science. It is not treated and studied as a branch of any other science like philosophy or political philosophy or history. As an independent science it has its own field of study, boundary and method.

NATURE OF SOCIOLOGY

Sociology as a branch of knowledge, has its own unique characteristics It is different from other sciences in certain respects. An analysis of internal logical characteristics helps one to understand what kind of science it is. The following are the main characteristics of sociology as enlisted by Robert Bierstedt in his book "The Social Order". Those each characteristics are added to this blog within the label "Nature of Sociology" onwards as unique posts.

DEFINITION OF SOCIOLOGY

'Sociology' which had once been treated as social philosophy, or the philosophy of the history, emerged as an independent social science in 19th century. Auguste Comte, a Frenchman, is traditionally considered to be the father of sociology. Comte is accredited with the coining of the term sociology (in 1839). "Sociology" is composed of two words : socius, meaning companion or associate; and 'logos', meaning science or study. The etymological meaning of "sociology" is thus the science of society. John Stuart Mill, another social thinker and philosopher of the 19th century, proposed the word ethology for this new science. Herbert Spencer developed his systematic study of society and adopted the word "sociology" in his works. With the contributions of Spencer and others it (sociology) became the permanent name of the new science.

The question 'what is sociology' is indeed , a question pertaining to the definition of sociology. No student can rightfully be expected to enter on a field of study which is totally undefined or unbounded. At the same time, it is not an easy task to set some fixed limits to a field of study. It is true in the case of sociology. Hence it is difficult to give a brief and a comprehensive definition of sociology.

Sociology has been defined in a number of ways by different sociologists. No single definition has yet been accepted as completely satisfactory. In fact, there are lot of definitions of sociology as there are sociologists. For our purpose of study a few definitions may be cited here.

1. Auguste Comete, the founding father of sociology, defines sociology as the science of social phenomena "subject to natural and invariable laws, the discovery of which is the object of investigation".
2. Kingsley Davis says that "Sociology is a general science of society".
3. Harry M. Johnson opines that "sociology is the science that deals with social groups".
4. Emile Durkheim: "Science of social institutions".
5. Park regards sociology as "the science of collective behavior".
6. Small defines sociology as "the science of social relationships".
7. Marshal Jones defines sociology as "the study of man-in-relationship-to-men".
8. Ogburn and Nimkoff : "Sociology is the scientific study of social life".
9. Franklin Henry Giddings defines sociology as "the science of social phenomena".
10. Henry Fairchild: "Sociology is the study of man and his human environment in their relations to each other".
11. Max Weber defines sociology as " the science which attempts the interpretative understanding of social action in order thereby to arrive at a casual explanation of its course and effects".
12. Alex Inkeles says, "Sociology is the study of systems of social action and of their inter-relations".
13. Kimball Young and Raymond W. Mack say, "Sociology is the scientific study of social aspects of human life".
14. Morris Ginsberg: of the various definitions of sociology the one given by Morris Ginsberg seems to be more satisfactory and comprehensive. He defines sociology in the following way: "In the broadest sense, sociology is the study of human interactions and inter-relations, their conditions and consequences".

A careful examination of various definitions cited above, makes it evident that sociologists differ in their opinion about definition of sociology. Their divergent views about the definition of sociology only reveal their distinct approaches to its study. However, the common idea underlying all the definitions mentioned above is that sociology is concerned with man, his social relations and his society.

Sociology - The Science of society

"In all ages and human times, ever science our erect and restless species appeared upon the planet, men have been living with others of their kind in something called Societies. Wherever these societies may be and whatever their chapter of history-weather primitive Polynesian or ancient Egyptian, classical Chinese or contemporary Russian, medieval English or modern American-they all exhibit common elements and constant features. These are the elements that give to society its form and shape, that constitute its structure and that, in a word, comprise the social order. It is the task of general sociology to discover these constants, to describe them with an economy of concepts, and to delineate their inter-relations".

Sociology is the science of society. No other science endeavours to study it in its entirety. Economics studies man as a wealth-getter and wealth-disposer and inquires into the relations of wealth and welfare. History deals with the human past in accordance with the time order. Cultural Anthropology studies man, particularly the primitive man and it concentrates more on the primitive communities and their cultures. Psychology studies the man as a behaving individual. Social Psychology, as a branch of psychology, concerned with the ways in which the individual reacts to his social conditions. Political Science studies man as a citizen, as a ruler and as being ruled. Religion deals with man as a spiritual being and inquires into his faith in the supernatural power. Sociology alone studies social relationships, society itself. Thus the 'focus' of no other social science is identical with with that of sociology. Indeed, it is the focus of interest that distinguishes one social science from another.

Sociology is interested in social relationships not because they are economic or political or religious or legal or educational but because they are at the same time, social. "Society", as Mac Iver says, "is the marvellously intricate and ever-changing pattern of the totality of these relationships". Further, in sociology we do not study everything that happens "in society" or under social conditions. But we study culture, for example, only for the light it throws on social relationships, their specific forms, variates and patternings. We study how the relations combine, how they build up smaller or greater systems, and how they respond to changes and changing demand or needs. Hence our study of society is essentially analytical