Nature and Scope of Sociology

In previous article we have learn about the definition and Importance of Sociology. You can click here if you miss that article. In this article, we will learn about the nature and scope of sociology.

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Nature of Sociology

Sociology has its own unique characteristic. It is different from other science in certain respects. The main characteristic of sociology are given below:

• Sociology is an independent science: Sociology is an independent science. It is not studied as a branch of any other science like philosophy or politics or history. It has its own field of study, boundary, and method.
• Sociology is a social science and not a physical science: Sociology belongs to the family of social science and not to the family of physical sciences. As a social science, it studies man, his behavior, social activities, and social life. As a member of the family of social science, it is related to other social science like history, political science, economics, anthropology, etc.
• Sociology is a categorical and not a normative discipline: Sociology “confines itself to statement about what is not, what should be or ought to be.” Sociology is necessarily silent about questions of value. It does not make any kind of value judgments. Its approach is neither moral nor immoral. It is ethically neutral.
• Sociology is a pure science and not an applied science: The difference between pure science and applied science is that pure science is the acquisition of knowledge and applied science is to apply the acquired knowledge into life and to put it to use, i.e. physics is pure science and engineering is it’s applied. Sociology is pure science because the aim of sociology is the acquisition of knowledge about human society, not the utilization of that knowledge. Sociologists never determine the question of public policy and don’t recommend legislation and what laws should be passed.
• Sociology is a relatively abstract science and not a concrete science: This does not mean that sociology is an art, unnecessarily complicated, and not a science. It only means that sociology is not interested in the concrete manifestation of human events. It is concerned with the form of human events and their patterns. For example, sociology is not concerned with wars and revolution but with war and revolution in general as social phenomena or social conflict.
• Sociology is both a rational and an empirical science: Empiricism and rationalism are the two ways of approaches to scientific knowledge. Empiricism emphasizes experiences and the facts that result from experimentation and observation and rationalism stresses reason and theories that result from logical inference. The empiricist collects facts and the rationalist co-ordinate and arranges them. Theories and facts are required in the construction of knowledge. In sociological inquiry both are significant.

It is clear from the above that sociology is an independent, social, categorical, pure, abstract, generalizing, both a rational and an empirical and general social science.

Scope of Sociology

The scope of sociology is defined here:

1. Social activities: Sociology studies social activities through which the group behavior of man is expressed. It studies human values, social interest, fellow feelings, affections and inspiration, natural expression of sorrow and happiness, and cooperation.
2. Social change: The aim of sociology is to improve man’s adjustments to life by developing knowledge, concerning social phenomena and dealing effectively with social problems.
3. Social control: The task of sociology is to find out guiding principles through a variety of processes.
4. Social stratification: The stratifications of sociology are primitive society and modern society.
5. Social family: In the family, the child experiences love, authority, directions, protections, setting of examples, and ideals. As he grows older, imitation of parental action and exposure to their suggestions lead him to form habits that affect his social life more profoundly than he will recognize until many years if at all.
6. Social religions: The aim of social religion is to teach people to accept advanced cultural and social change.
7. Social political activities: Sociology studies social political activities.
8. Social industrial functions: Sociology studies social industrial functions such as the purpose of mills, factories, etc. for the development of the country.

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