Introduction to Sociology

Module 1
• Nature of Sociology
• Scope of Sociology
 Nature of Sociology
Is Sociology a Science or Not?
Arguments in favor of sociology as a science

• A science is “a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths

systematically arranged and showing the “operation of general laws”

• Main characteristics of science are:

 Concise, consistent and concrete formulation

 Capacity to form generalizations and make predictions

 Verification of the data as well as generalizations

 Sociology not a Science

• Lack of experimentation

• Lack of objectivity

• Lack of exactivity

• Terminological insufficiency
 Sociology as a Science
• Undertakes scientific investigation of human behavior by using tools like observation,
questionnaire, Interview schedule, case history etc. Quantitative tools are also used
depending upon the need of the study

• Not all the physical sciences employ laboratory experimentation

• Sociology also frames laws and attempts to predict

• Sociology traces cause and effect relationship. For example social disorganisation and
divorce
 Can Sociology be Value free science

• Value free means “Can sociology keep itself away from the question of social values
and study social behavior in its empirical sense”

• Max Weber for the first time brought in the element of ‘ethically neutral’ and ‘value
free’ to sociology

• It means that sociology should be free from any kind of value orientation

• This aims to look at sociology as a neutral subject which is expected not to draw any
ideological or moral conclusion

• However, Sociology can never be value free science though some schools of thought
look at sociology in a neutral manner, just as a structure
 Characteristics of Sociology
• An Independent Science

• A Social Science and not a physical science

• A categorical not a normative discipline

• Pure science not an applied science

• Relatively an abstract science not a concrete science

• A generalising not a particularising science

 Scope of Sociology

• Study of sociology is organised within a specific boundary which is known as the

scope of Sociology

• There exist two different views about scope of sociology

• Formalistic or specialist School of thought: Narrow Scope

• Synthetic school of thought: Wider Scope

 The formalistic or Specialist School of Thought

This school of thought is headed by German Sociologist George Simmel

According to them Sociology cannot study social life as a whole. Hence

the scope of Sociology is very limited. According to this School of thought
the scope of Sociology consists of forms of social relationships. These
Sociologists want to keep the scope of Sociology distinct from other
social sciences. These schools of thought consider sociology as a pure
and independent science.
 George Simmel

• Simmel agree with the formalistic view that Sociology is a pure and
independent science. According to him Sociology is a specific social
science which describes, classifies, analyses and delineates the forms of
social relationships, the process of socialization and social organization.
Sociology should confine itself to study formal behaviour instead of
studying actual behaviour.
 Leopold Vonwiese

Another advocate of formalistic school Vonwiese opines that the scope of Sociology is
very limited because it only studies the forms of social relationships and forms of
social processes.

He has divided these social relationships and social processes into many types.
According to Vonwiese there are two social processes in society such as associative
and dissociative social process. Co-operation, accommodation, assimilation etc. are
example of associative process. Whereas competition and conflict are example of
dissociative process. Accordingly he identified more than 650 forms of human
relationships.
 Max-weber

Another supporter of formalistic school Max-weber agrees with the

formalistic view that the scope of Sociology is very limited. Because
Sociology attempt to make an interpretative understanding of social action
and social behaviour. It should confine itself to the analysis and
classification of social action and social behaviour. Social behaviour is that
which is related to the behaviour of others. Sociology studies these
behaviours only.
 Synthetic School of Thought

Synthetic School of thought is another important school of the scope of Sociology.

It came into being as a reaction to the formalistic school of thought. The synthetic
school of thought wants to make sociology a synthesis of social sciences.
According to this school of thought the scope of sociology is very wide.
 Emile Durkheim

• The chief exponent of synthetic school of thought is Emile Durkheim, who opines that the scope of sociology

has three main divisions or field of study such as Social Morphology, Social Physiology and general sociology.

• (a) Social Morphology includes all those subjects which are fundamentally geographic such as population its

size, density, distribution, mobility etc. It analyses the size and quality of the population in as much as it

affects the qualities of social relationships and social groups

• (b) Social Physiology includes all those subjects which are studied by particular social sciences such as

religion, language, economy, law etc. In other words social physiology has different branches such as

sociology of law, sociology of religion etc. which are regarded as special sociologies. These branches deals

with a set of social facts related to different social groups.

• (c) General Sociology is the philosophical part of Sociology. It aims at discovering the general character of

social facts and to formulate general social laws.

 P.A. Sorokin

• Sorokin opines sociology studies various aspects of the social relationships

hence cannot be called as a special science. According to him the scope of
sociology includes (a) the study of relationship between various aspect of social
phenomena (b) the study of relationship between the social and non-social (c) the
study of general features of social phenomena
 Karl Mannheim

Another exponent of synthetic school of thought Karl Mannheim divides the scope
of sociology into two main divisions such as systematic and general sociology, and
historical sociology. Systematic and general sociology explain the main factors of
living together. Historical sociology studies the historical variety and actuality of the
general forms of society. It is divided into two sections namely comparative
sociology and social dynamics.
Thank You