Jnanam vignanam cha bhaktisahitam

Meaning of Sociology
 Jnanam vignanam cha bhaktisahitam

• Sociology is the science of society.

• During all the ages men were thinking on sociological lines, it was only in 19 th
century that systematic attempts were made by Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer,
Weber, and others to study society and to establish a science of society called
Sociology.
• Auguste Comte, the French philosopher and sociologist named the new science as
Sociology at about 1839 in his famous work ‘Positive Philosophy’.
• He is considered as the ‘Father of Sociology’.
• The word sociology is derived from the Latin word ‘Societus’ meaning society
and the Greek word ‘Logus’ meaning ‘Study’ or ‘Science’. The etymological
meaning of the term Sociology is the “Science of Society”.
 Jnanam vignanam cha bhaktisahitam

• Sociology is concerned with human relationships. It deals with the individuals as a

social being that is man in relation to his fellow beings.
Definitions
• Auguste Comte – “Sociology is the science of social phenomena subject to natural
and invariable laws, the discovery of which is the object of investigation”.
• Kingsley Davis- “ Sociology is the general science of society”.
• Emile Durkheim – “ Sociology is the science is of social institutions”.
• Small - “science of the social relations”.