SOCIOLOGY, CHARACTERISTICS, AS A SCIENCE

SOCIOLOGY

Sociology is the study of society. Sociology is both topically and methodologically a very broad discipline. Its traditional focuses have included social stratification (i.e., "class"), social mobility, religion, secularization, law, and deviance, while approaches have included both qualitative and quantitative research techniques. As all spheres of human activity are sculpted by social structure and individual agency, sociology has gradually expanded its focus to further subjects, such as medical, military and penal institutions, the Internet, and even the role of social activity in the development of scientific knowledge. 

The range of social scientific methods has also broadly expanded. The linguistic and cultural turns of the mid-twentieth century led to increasingly interpretative, hermeneutic, and philosophic approaches to the analysis of society. Conversely, recent decades have seen the rise of new mathematically and computationally rigorous techniques, such as agent-based modeling and social network analysis. 

According to P.A. Sorokin 

“Sociology is a generalizing of socio-culture phenomena viewed in their generic forms, types, and manifold interconnections”

CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIOLOGY

Following are the main characteristics of sociology:-

 Social Science

 Categorical

 Pure Science

 Abstract Science

 Generalizing

 Rational and an Empirical Sciences

 General 

Social Science: Sociology is first of all a social science and not a natural science because it deals with the social universe not with the physical universe. 

Categorical: Sociology is a categorical, not a normative, discipline cause it confines itself to statements about what is, not what should be or ought to be. 

Pure Science: Sociology is a pure science, not an applied science because the immediate goal of sociology is the acquisition of knowledge about human society, not the utilization of that knowledge. 

Abstract Science: Sociology is a relatively abstract science and not a concrete one. It means that sociology is not interested in the concrete manifestations of human events but rather in the form that they take and the patterns they assume. For example, in distinguishing sociology from history, that sociology was concerned, not with particular wars and revolutions but with war and revolution in general as social phenomena

Generalizing: It is a generalizing and not a particularizing or individualizing science. It seeks general laws or principles about human interaction and association, about the nature, form, content and structure of human groups and societies, and not as in the case of history, or particular events. For example, sociology is not interested in the wars between Pakistan and India, but in the sociological principle that external is one way to intensify the internal solidarity of a group.

Rational & Empirical: Sociology is that it is both a rational and an empirical sciences.

General: It is a general and not a special science. In other words, sociology studies those phenomena that are common to all human interaction. This point may be clarified by the following formula:

Economic a, b, c, d, e, f

Political a, b, c, g, h, i

Religious a, b, c, j, k, l

Legal a, b, c, m, n, o

In all these phenomena, whether economic or political or religious, the same a, b, c occur. For quick reference these categories or cannon are arranged in a series of opposing pairs and italicize and underline those logical characterizes that pertain to sociology:

Social Natural

Categorical Normative

Pure         Applied

Abstract         Concrete

Generalizing Particularizing

Rational         Empirical

General Special

THE TERM SOCIOLOGY AS A SCIENCE

Early sociologists tried to establish sociology as a science, and their arguments are mainly on the methodology of sociology. Comte claimed that sociology uses four different kinds of methodologies, namely observation, experiment, comparison and historical research as a special case of comparison.  A science may be defined in at least two ways:

 A science is a body of organized, verified knowledge which has been secured through scientific investigation

 A science is a method of study, whereby a body of organized, verified knowledge is discovered. Actually these are the two ways of saying much the same thing.

If we accept first definition then sociology is a science to the extent that it has developed a body of organized, verified knowledge which is based on scientific investigation. To the extent that sociology forsakes myth, folklore, and wishful thinking and has based its conclusions on scientific evidence, it is a science. If science is defined as a method of study then sociology is a science to the extent that it uses scientific methods of study. All natural phenomena can be studied scientifically, if one is willing to use scientific methods. Any kind of behaviors is proper field of scientific study.  

During human history, few of our actions have been based on verified knowledge, for people through the ages have been guided mainly by folklore, habit, and guesswork. Until a few centuries ago, very few people accepted the idea that we should find out about the natural world by systematic observation of the natural world itself, rather than by consulting oracles, ancestors, or institution. This new idea created the modern world. A few decades age we began acting on the assumption that this same approach might also give useful knowledge about human social life.

An important aspect of the sociological viewpoint is that it is basically scientific in character. Sociologists try to study human social behavior by using objective techniques; it is, this commitment to the scientific method that makes sociology a scientific discipline. Sociologists do not accept insight or intuition or common sense alone in answer to their questions. They seek scientific evidence. 

Sociologists gather this evidence on ways similar to those used by natural scientists. They collect and analyze verifiable data; they keep careful records of their observations; they try to control the conditions surrounding the subject under study. Like natural scientists, sociologists, sociologists strive to present findings that are not biased by subjective judgment and human emotion. However, human beings are not insensitive objects that can be scientifically manipulated; they have values, consciousness, and feelings. The methods of scientists alone are inadequate to produce a full understanding of the human experience. There remains on much sociological work, therefore, the stamp of the humanist, marked by insight, empathy, and philosophical speculation. It is the interplay between scientific and humanistic approaches that vitalizes much of contemporary sociological thought.

To scientists, truth is not absolute an unchanging all encompassing set of laws but it is relative to the special circumstances under which it was discovered, demonstrated, and formulated. This principle is particularly applicable to sociological truths, which are almost always generalizations based on incomplete evidence. Conscientious sociologists, therefore, indicate the limitations of their finding.

Sociologist are very careful in their findings and very selective in using words. They do not say, for example, “All women want to bet married”. Instead they say, “The majority of American women now living, who ae between the ages of twenty and fifty five have expressed a favorable attitude toward the possibility of marriage.” Although this habit of qualifying and modifying statements sometimes makes sociological writing hard to read and comprehend, it is this very insistence on qualification and careful definition that makes sociology a science, a useful, and illuminating field of study.