Meaning of Sociology

Sociology is defined as the study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society. The term “Sociology” was coined by French Philosopher Auguste Comte in 1839. The word Sociology is derived from the Latin word “Societus” which means society and the Greek word “Logos” which means science. Sociology is an empirical, holistic, and rational science that emerged in the middle of the 19th century in order to address the problems of society. Sociologists have their own kind of Meaning of Sociology.

Sociology is the youngest discipline of all the social sciences. It studies ethnic, linguistic, gender, culture, religious economic, and political diversity of sociology. Sociology is a reasoned and rigorous study of the human individuals, their social relationships whole range of their conditions and consequences.

Definition of Sociology

Sociology is the science of social phenomena that deals with social groups, processes of socialization that tends to maintain or change these forms of organization and relations.

Characteristics of Sociology

• Sociology is an independent science.
• It is a social science and not physical science.
• It is pure science and not applied to science.
• It is general science but not a particular science.
• It is both rational and empirical science.

Sociology is a separate field of society because it is the:

• Study of social relations,
• Study of the entire society,
• Study of social groups and
• Study of social interactions.

Understanding Sociology through definitions from key figures:

• Auguste Comte says, “Sociology is a science of social phenomena subject to natural and invariable laws, the discovery of which is the object of investigation”.
• Max Weber says, “Sociology as a science which attempts the interpretative understanding of social action in order to arrive at a causal explanation of its course and effects (cause and effect relationship)  “
• Morris Ginsberg opines, “Sociology is the study of human interactions and interrelations, their conditions and consequences”.

Characteristics of sociology given by CN Shankar Rao:

• An independent science.
• Social science.
• Pure science not applied to science.
• A general, not a particular science.
• Both rational and empirical science.

Nature of Sociology

1. Sociology is a social science, not physical science.
2. It is an independent science in its subject matter.
3. It is pure science as well as applied science.
4. The contents of sociology are abstract but methods and methodologies are concrete.
5. It is generalizing science but not particularizing science.
6. It is Rational, Empirical and Holistic science.
7. Fieldwork is the hallmark in sociology(fieldwork and sociology are two parts of the same coin).

Scope Of Sociology:

• Social Relationships(father and mother, husband and wife, baby and mother, etc)
• Social Processes(cooperation, migration, conflict, competition, etc)
• Study various groups and organizations like family, caste, associations, and state.
• Further, it focuses on national issues like unemployment, conflict, etc.

Summary

• Sociology is a science that studies social relationships, social science, social interaction, social life, social activities, and the entire society.
• Sociology is on the whole of the theory of human living together.
• It is the scientific study of social life as a whole.
• It is the body of knowledge about human society arrived at by scientific methods.
• It is the study of the relationships between man and his human environment.

Descriptions in brief:

1. Sociology is the branch of knowledge and it has its own characteristics. Sociology has different nature in society. The nature of sociology is very diverse because it ranges from the structure of society to the behavior of individual people, culture, and its significance.
2. There is a lot of scope of studying this subject due to the presence of various topics like gender, race, equality, philosophy; and on top of that, there are various readings on work of previous classical, neo-classical and modern philosophers on the study of society and development of humans, politics, state, etc.
3. This is one of the main reasons that this degree is highly valued in areas like development and the non-profit sector where it requires people to study and understand society and work for its betterment.
4. On a higher level, the nature of sociology is that it has the capacity to build a better society if enough research, thoughts, and efforts are put into it. For e.g. how Marx changed the world with his ideas.

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