Is Sociology A Social Science Essays

August Comte, the father of sociology, first of conceived the word ‘sociology’ in, 1839.Max Weber defines 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”.He conceived of sociology as an abstract theoretical science of social phenomena.Small defines sociology as “the science of social relations”.According to him it is the business of sociology to discover and abstract social laws and thereby to explain the social phenomena.

Sociology is obvious in history in that the social interactions of individuals have effected history, and then of course there is the history of Sociology itself.The second type of social sciences calle general social sciences which undertake comprehensively .Sociology comes in category of general science.He further says, historical events have record of individual roles, while sociology means ,it is study of social facts and social representations occurred by social circumstances.Sociology not only borrows from other social sciences but other social sciences also dependent on sociology.Gilchrist says,”Sociology studies man as a social being ,and political organization is a special kind of social orgnisation; political science is more sp...

As a mother of social sciences Sociology has close and intimate relationship with all other social science.Sociology being the science of society deals with man and all his associated processes, while political Science being the science of the Political society is concerned with only one form of human associations.Gilchrist says, “Sociology studies Man as a social being and as political organization, it is a special kind of social organization; Political Science is a more specialized science than Sociology.”12 The scope of Sociology is wider than that of Political Science.It is said that ‘social anthropology studies, in social situations, the behaviour of man.’ Some sociologists say that Social Anthropology and sociology in a sense are m...

Consequently, there evolved a subfield of sociology that tackles the practice of science amidst the continued debates surrounding the inadequacy of sociology as a science or controversy that it is restricted to the subjective framework of the researcher and therefore not scientific.Thus in his classic overview of Sociology, Peter Berger (1963) provided two approaches to sociology: as an individual pastime and as a form of consciousness.Sociology is “the study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior.” (Marek, 2004) This involves a thorough examination of the group structures (e.g.The sociology of science highlights and distinguishes the role of sociology as a field of study concerning scienc...

In general terms sociology can be understand as the science of society, certain social institutions (government, law, morality, etc.And according to one of them sociology – is a science, in which focused social communities, their origins, interactions and trends.Contemporary sociology – is a lot of streams and scientific schools, which in many ways try to explain its subject and the role of different answers to the question what is sociology.Therefore, sociology – is the science of generic properties and fundamental laws of social phenomena.Do not diminishing the value of numerous areas of social science, however, sociology is unique ability to see the world as integral system.

Comte who invented the term Sociology was the first man to distinguish the subject-matter of Sociology from all the other sciences.In Durkheim’s theory ultimate social reality is the group, not the individual social life has to be analysed in terms of social facts.“Comparative sociology is not a particular branch of sociology, it is sociology itself” he maintained.The sociology of crime, economic sociology including sub-section on measurement of value and occupational groups, Demography including studies on urban and rural communities, and sociology of Aesthetics.(4) Finally, they insisted that sociology should focus on social acts or social relationship regardless of their institutional setting.

Both sociologists who focus on social reform and those who emphasize basic sociology reject applied sociology.* Pure sociology is research whose only purpose is to make discoveries, while applied sociology is the use of sociology to solve social problems in settings ranging from the work place to the family.* A tension between social reform and social analysis has always run through sociology.To understand the tension between social reform and social analysis, sociologists have found it useful to divide the development of sociology into three phases.* Sociology is similar to the other social sciences in some ways, but it is distinct because it looks at all social institutions, focuses on industrialized societies, and looks at external fa...

The three social scientists have all recognised that sociology is a science.Sociology was defined as the science that studies human society, social behaviour and social life.It is widely accepted that sociology is about the study of human beings as given in Giddens definition of sociology who also noted that sociology was an amazing and an undeniable enterprise whose subject is our own behaviour as human beings .Furthermore, sociology faces the problem of social change and subsequent impermanence of solutions.However, Giddens defined sociology as the systematic study of human societies, giving special emphasis to modern and industrialized systems besides being a social science that concerns itself with understanding of human behaviour.

Sociology utilizes this process by conducting studies and proposing hypotheses for problems of a social nature like social stratification, which then are i... .In conclusion, sociology is a legitimate science however certain dissimilarities must be addressed in order to fully comprehend the scope of that claim.Despite the differences between the natural sciences and the social sciences, sociology is in fact a legitimate science.In his article problems are discussed as the source of knowledge and that science pursues problems to determine answers so that we may gain awareness and understanding.Although sociology is different at face value than the natural sciences, the two possess fundamental similarities by which problems are recognized ...

Sociology was structured later in Germany than in France, in particular because it remained associated for a long time with political science: the term sociology did not appear until the 1880s and it was not until the beginning of the century that s 'institutionalize the discipline.While the recognized founders of sociology are often male figures (Auguste Comte, Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber and Émile Durkheim), some women have also contributed to the development of sociology.Sociology is a discipline of the social sciences which aims to seek explanations and typically social understandings, and not mental or biophysical, of observable phenomena, in order to show their sociological "nature".Sociology studies social interactions, which...

For Durkheim, sociology was the science of social facts.In his study social fact is not equal to social phenomenon, the studying of social phenomenon is not a person’s subjective activity, but it is a kind of objective existence, and the social fact once happens, it will affect the individuals in society.Weber’s sociological understanding to social action is same as the research object, and argued that the method of natural science in special effect is difficult to apply social science research, it cannot explain human behavior with subjective meaning hidden behind the value and significance (Weber, 1968, p. 15).That is to say, Weber’s social action is more specific than Durkheim’s social fact .Because social facts and macroscopic reason...

Almost anything that anyone can think of involves Sociology in some way.Studying social interaction is a main focus of Sociology because Sociologists study different ways people interact with one another.Sociology is an important field of study because it allows people to explore for themselves why things are the way that they are.Since Sociology plays a big role in everyday life, even when some people might not know it, that leaves many wondering what exactly Sociology is.Anthropology, unlike Sociology, likes to examine past and present cultures that are simple in the way that they live.

The growth and superiority of the natural sciences stimulated social scientists also to develop a social science that would solve societal problems that had been brought by the industrial and political revolutions.Sociology started as an academic discipline at Chicago School of thought, faculties and departments of sociology were set up at Chicago and sociology emerged as an academic disciple in the Western nations between the 1920s and 1970s.The social scientists eagerness of creating a science of society resulted the beginning of sociology which is the scientific study of the society.Thus sociology developed due to socialism because sociology hardly consisted solely the scientific study of the society but it also comprised criticisms o...

“It can be said that the first wisdom of sociology is this- things are not what they seem” (Berger, 1963).Sociology is not social work, but is a unique social science.Sociology is simply the science of how human behavior is shaped by all the factors that influence society.Sociology allows for the ability to understand human behavior enough to make changes to our society and prevent problems that we have individual and as a society.Sociologists may wear a variety of hats from data collectors to community planners, community destroyers, criminologists, and even social reformers (Berger, 1963).

Personally, social science is the type of research that integrates everything from physical science on one end of the spectrum to the individual’s mind on the other.Social science ranks just as high as importance as its physical science counterparts because at its core we seek to understand how humans behave and interact.The principle of social science is the explanation of outcomes and developments in the social world; this encompasses economics, anthropology, politics, history and psychology.Social science looks into the dynamics how these improvements take place and transforms through the ages.Social Science is also the development of theoretical knowledge and understanding, how the social... ... middle of paper ... ...-profit capacit...

No two social sciences are as closely related as political science and sociology.He writes: “Sociology derives from political science knowledge of the facts regarding the organization and activities of the state, while political science derives in large measure from sociology its knowledge of the origin of political authority and the laws of social control”.Sociology is the fundamental social science.Interdisciplinary study of political science and sociology got tremendous fillip with the emergence of political behaviouralism.The subject of sociology is social man and that of political science is political man.

In regards to Sociology, it would have to be classed as unscientific as theories cannot be falsified.A French Philosopher, Auguste Comte dedicated his time into studying society to help tackle social problems.This is because there are too many internal and external factors that can’t be measured, even though Positivists try to use scientific methods, it’s impossible to be exact science but more of an impersonation of science.“Sociology has been variously defined as the science of human relations, of the phenomena of social interaction, of social forms, of group interpretation, or simply as the science of society” (Sorokin 1931).The scientific method was seen as a way of controlling and understanding the world through empirical research.A...

These three figures mentioned in the context of each conception are regarded to be fathers of modern sociology and this work briefly considers their contribution to the science of sociology.Weber offered a philosophical basis for the social sciences; a general conceptual framework for sociology; and a range of learned studies covering all of the great world religions, ancient societies, economic history, the sociology of law and of music, and many other areas.The first states that the proper object for sociology is social structure, in the sense of patterns of relationships which have an independent existence, over and above the individuals or groups that occupy positions in these structures at any particular time: for example, the posit...

He was associate director of the Office of Applied Social Science Research from 1942 to 1971, and was appointed Giddings Professor of Sociology in 1963.However, unlike Parsons who considered it necessary to establish a general theory in the social sciences (which he will do via functionalism), Merton saw more value in establishing “middle-range theories”, that is to say intermediate theories, adjusted to each area of ​​sociology.In 1942, he published the article The normative Structure of Science in The sociology of science (Chicago University Press), founder of a tradition of analysis of the norms and values ​​that govern the social behavior of scientists .The sociologist is at the origin of the notion of social dysfunction: when the co...

for the researcher, and sometimes a different problem.Rural people are also of interest to psychologists, demographers, etc.Social history, focusing on a past where agriculture was the activity of the majority of men, gives a large place to the description of peasant life.The rural sociologist, like the ethnographer, must therefore know the methods and techniques of all the other social sciences, unless he secures the assistance of a team of various specialists.Being men like any other, rural people are part of every social science, but they live in a particular environment which requires a certain specialization.

Finally, the sociology of knowledge has enable Collins to describe the philosophical transformations which have been achieved in modern Europe, Japan and china.The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory Of Intellectual Change Harvard University press, USA ISBN 0-674-00187-7 Geoffrey, L. (2003).Sociology of knowledge Sociology of knowledge refers to the study of the social sources of knowledge and its impact on the society.He further uses the sociology of knowledge to explain how it is possible to predict the thinking process of an individual.Through the sociology of knowledge, Collins is able to explain that the rationalization process of Western, Indian and Asian philosophies has only been achieved through conceptual framework and s...

Meanwhile, Rickert argued that physics can be formally homothetic, but social science can not be, because the objects of social science could be unique and historically changing (Smith, 2003).Moreover, Durkheim also accepted that social research should be based on empirical evidence, such as social ‘things’ or ‘social facts’ (Baert, 2005).Firstly, his work led to social conflict, due to the centralisation of power and the inequality between its members was caused by this complication of social relations in his theory.He also mentioned that ‘social dynamics’ was greater than ‘social statics’ (Ritzer, 2007).Comte believed that the head of all scientific inquiry should be sociology (Turner, 2001); Spencer believed sociology should be derive...

Thus, humans are social actors; they are active makers of social reality, and not as the structural approaches asserts, merely the dumb, unthinking cogs in the giant machine of society.Because, for the interpretive sociologies, human beings are unique kinds of creatures: they have reasons for what they do; they have beliefs about the world which affect their social action; they conduct themselves in the social world in the light of how they interpret what is going on and in view of others’ responses to them, and so on.Instead, we have an emphasis upon how human beings, social actors as interpretive sociology terms them, produce/construct social realism in interaction with others.They are also anti-positivist is that they reject the idea ...

The first criticism argues that, positivism ignored the role of the observer in the context of social reality and thereby ignores the truth that the so called “social facts” are in fact conditioned by social and historical realities.In his The Rules of Sociological Methods published in French in 1895, he clearly indicated two principles for sociology to be called as a science.The “Social Physics” as he called it first, sociology was divided into two main areas, social statistics and social dynamics.Nevertheless, Comte’s view of sociology as the study of human society and positivist methodology of social research still remains his remarkable contribution.As Peter Halfpenny says in his book, Positivism and Sociology “…positivism is a uni...

This has led to the criticism that sociology is ethnocentric.Here sociology is characterised by the fact that it examines the informal and formal social relationships en... ... middle of paper ... ...ular beginnings and reflected particular sets of interests.So sociology had its beginnings as a white, male, middle-class and European enterprise.Furthermore it is significant that sociology is a male enterprise from its very beginnings.However new you are to sociology it is probable that you have an idea, however vague and general, regarding what sociology is supposed to be about.

A more in-depth interpretation of sociology is that it is the study of society and how it impacts individuals’ decision making, values and morals.But as Goodall & Oswald cites, ‘what principally matters is whether social scientists are doing their job of helping humans to understand the world and improve life’.Many people would query what is sociology for and why should anyone care about it.This essay will include definitions and concepts of how theorists perceive sociology.Sociology is commonly criticised as being simply a form of ‘common sense’ as the themes that are sociologically researched are what society claims to already know.

The scientific study of social life, social change, social causes and the consequences of human behavior.Sociology is a science because it uses the scientific method to establish truth.Sociology is a hard science in that it is very challenging to comprehend people’s thoughts and actions.The term of sociology is taken from the words “socio” and “logos," socio means society and logos mean science.Most physical or hard sciences such as physics, biology, and chemistry are considered more legitimate because unlike hard sciences sociology has not resulted in being able to engineer predictable social results.

The second being more specific to the sociology of science, was Robert Merton, who wrote extensively on the sociology of scientists – However Merton’s view on the sociology of science did not include the field of knowledge’.It has also been influential in the sociology of science.So instead of rational reconstruction, Bloor’s aim was to study science as a social construction.It is often associated with social constructionism or constructivism because it views scientific knowledge as possessing social causes in the production of its content.As such the strong programme represents a realist, empirical theory of knowledge, embedded in relativist tendencies, that sees rationality as having social components…this proved to be without doubt...

He begins with the history of Sociology playing emphasis on the great role it played on society as a whole.Seidman argues strongly that the ultimate fate of sociology and the study thereof lies in the hand of its scientist.In the introduction of Contested Knowledge, Seidman first begins to argue the barriers and conflicts within the science of Sociology that restricts the growth and in the future may cease the existence of the science.Unfortunately, moral hope is acknowledged by many scientists in the field but is not respected as one of the core principles of social research and theory.In the past, the role of public educators was filled by sociology theorist.

Psychology differs from anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology in seeking to capture explanatory generalizations about the mental function and overt behavior of individuals, while the other disciplines focus on creating descriptive generalizations about the functioning of social groups or situation-specific human behavior.Although some subfields encompass a natural science base and a social science application, others can be clearly distinguished as having little to do with the social sciences or having a lot to do with the social sciences.New sociological sub-fields continue to appear — such as community studies, computational sociology, environmental sociology, network analysis, actor-network theory and a growing lis...