Caste System



Introduction to Sociology

Three different branches of knowledge

1. The Physical Sciences deal with matter and their subject matter is one-dimensional. Ex.: Physics, Chemistry

2. The Life Sciences deals with entities which are not only matter but which also have life and their subject matter is bi-dimensional. Ex.: Zoology, Botany

3. The Social Sciences – deal with matter and life and culture –and their subject matter is tri-dimensional. Ex.: Sociology, Psychology

Culture means a) ability to innovate and b) ability to symbolize

Sociology is a hybrid term composed of a Latin word socious meaning a companion or associate and a Greek word logos meaning science. Sociologically etymologically means the science which is concerned with associations of human beings.

Definitions

We can classify the important definitions into following five groupings

1. Sociology as a study of society

Sociology attempts to study society scientifically - Horton and Hunt

2. Sociology as a study of social groups

Sociology deals with the behavior of man in groups – K Young

3. Sociology as the study of social actions, interactions or social relationships

Sociology is the science which attempts the interpretative understanding of social action – Max Weber

4. Sociology as the study of social institutions

Sociology is the science of institutions – Durkheim

5. Sociology as the study of social life, bonds, processes, system, structure, phenomenon and so on

Sociology is concerned with the study of the social life of man – Ogburn and Nimkoff

Sociology is a young science addressed to an ancient question

Sociology is the scientific study of human society - or to be more modest and detailed – it is the attempt to study as scientifically as possible all known forms of human associations, their nature, functions, interconnections and patterns of change in various types of society.

Emergence of Sociology

Sociology the subject that we study today emerged first in Europe. Four major movements that prevailed in Europe before the emergence of Sociology.

1 Cultural Movement – Renaissance – 14 to 17th Century

2. Philosophic Movement – Enlightenment – 18th Century

3. Political Movement- French Revolution – 18th Century

4. Economic Movement – Industrial Revolution – late 18 and early 19th century

Major concerns of Sociology

1. How and why societies emerge?

2. How and why societies persist?

3. How and why societies change?

Scope of Sociology

a) Formal School (George Simmel and Von Wiese)

They insist that sociologists should delimit the study of the forms of social relationships (competition, cooperation, conflict etc). The contents of relationships should be left to be studied by other social sciences.

b) Synthetic School (August Comte and Emile Durkheim)

The synthetic school wants to study both the forms and contents of relationships.

Hence what is the scope of Sociology?

Macro Themes of sociology - Sociologist attempts to answer questions which concern human societies as a whole or specific societies as totalities

Meso Themes – Sociology also deals with specific aspects of a society such as social institutions, social structures, processes, movements etc. These may be referred to as meso themes in sociology in that they concentrate on middle or intermediate level units

Micro Themes - Finally sociology is also concerned with the analysis of specific concrete situations of human social actions and events in every day life. These may be called micro themes of sociology. By their very nature micro studies confine their attention to small scale situations.

Needless to say the study of totality inevitably entails the study of part and parts can be adequately understood only if they are situated in relation to the whole.

Sociological Perspectives

Human society is a complex network and there are three ways to study it.

1. Structural Functional Theory - Society as a Unity - Society as a consensual system - It views society as a complex but inter connected system where each part works together as a functional whole.

2. Social conflict theory - society as a multiplicity – Society as a Coercive system - It views system of groups that are not equal and constantly generate conflict and change

3. Symbolic Interactionism -Society as a process -They imply that society is really about smaller groups within it and the symbols small groups use to communicate.

Sociology as a Science

Sociology is a) general science; b) abstract science and c) empirical science

Critique

1. Problem of experimentation – limitation are both practical and ethical

2. Problem of quantification- some parts of sociological phenomena can be quantified using statistical methods but a large part of it is essentially qualitative in nature and is not amenable to quantitative techniques

3. Problem of generalisation – Sociologists have not been successful in arriving at law like generalizations. At best they can establish statistical correlations.

4. Problem of objectivity

Branches of Sociology

1. Historical Sociology

2. Sociology of Knowledge

3. Sociology of Law

4. Social Ecology

5. Sociology of education

6. Political sociology

7. Economic Sociology

8. Sociology of Religion

9. Criminology

10. Rural Sociology

11. Urban Sociology

12. Industrial sociology

Application of Sociology to life

1. Public Policy

2. Social Change

3. Personal Growth

__________________________________

Dr. Sam J. Abraham, LL.M. Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Amity Law School – Center II

Amity University, UP

Mob: 09413706290 / 09910462247

E-mail: samjabraham@

__________________________________

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download